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A 

DISCOURSE 

BEFORE THE 

YOUNG MEN'S 



Hi 



COLONIZATION SOCIETY 



PENNSYLVANIA, 



DELIVERED OCTOBER 24, 1834, IN ST. Paul's CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, 



BY 

J. R. TYSON. 



WITH A NOTICE OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY, AND OF 

THEIR FIRST EXPEDITION OF COLOURED EMIGRANTS TO 

FOUND A COLONY AT BASSA COYE, 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY 

1834. 







LIST OF OFFICERS 



Potuifl ittrn's CoIonOcttfoitSocfctn of ^cnnsnlternfa. 



PATRONS. 

Madison, of Va. Gerrit Smith, Esq. N. Y. 

Chief Juslico Marshall, do. Elliott C'resson, Esq. 

lit. Rev. Wm. WJiite, D.D. Win. Short, JEsq. 

PRESIDENT. 
Rev. John Breckinridge. 

VICE PRESIDENTS. 

Jos. R. Ingcrsoll, Esq. Rev. W. H. Dc Lancey, D.D. 

I. A. J!;irnes, Rev. II. A. Boardman, 

Dr. John Bell, Gerard Ralston, Esq. 

.Matthew Newkirk, Esq. Alexander .Mitchell, M. D. 

Benjamin Naglee, Esq. Joseph Dugan, Esq. 
Hon. Joseph M'llvainc, 

TREASURER. 
Lloyd IMiffli.v. 

SECRETARIES. 

Foreign Correspondence — Elliott C'resson. 

Domestic Cowcspondence — Rev. W. A. M'Dowell, D.D. 

Recording — Topliff Johnson. 

MANAGERS. 

Samuel Jandon, James N. Dickson, 

Richard I). Wood, Lewis R. Ashhurst, 

William M. Muzzcy, Clark CuJp, 

George W. North, Henry S. Spackman, 

Samuel W.HallowcD, Rev. John W. James, 

Ri ] \ P< tbody, .F..lm Hockley, 

mon Caldwell, Benjamin I 

William M. Collins, Samm I Magarge, 

Jam* - A. I'lirtnis, Benjamin D. Johnson, 
J. Houston Mifflin, Robert B. Davidson, 

Charli a Nayfor, \v. m McMain, 

I. r. Robert Baird, Rev. George W.Bethune. 

'■\ WllHam S. M»rlim, 
• Ur. t 



>© 



* 



At a meeting of the Board op Managers of the 
Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, held 
November 11th, 1S34, the following Resolution, offered by 
Dr. John Bell, was unanimously and cordially approved, 
viz: 

Resolved, That the. Board of Managers, in the name of 
the Society, return tiieir grateful acknowledgments to Job 
R. Tyson, Esq. for his appropriate and excellent Discourse, 
delivered before the Young Men's Colonization Society of 
Pennsylvania, on the 24th of October, 1S34, and that a copy 
of the same, be requested of the Author for publication. 

Extract from the Minutes. 

Topliff Johnson, 
Secretary of the Board of Managers. 

Philadelphia, Dec. 5, 1834. 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 



The Author of the following Discourse will regret if it should give pain to 
any person or party. He himself belongs to no party whatever. The call 
which was made upon him, imposed the duty of expressing his opinions fully 
and fearlessly, and lie trusts that he has discharged the obligation in a spirit of 
temperance and candour. As it is of little moment to others what opinions he 
may choose to entertain or express, his chief solicitude has been lest the cause 
might be injured by his lame exposition and imperfect defence. 

' J ' 1 1 > • writer docs not intend to become a gladiator in this arena. He hopes, 
therefore, to be pardoned lor saying, that the limits prescribed to an oration, 
[in eluded that full array of fact and argument which the topic requires. 
From this cause, he has left untouched several considerations which he would 
gladly have introduced, and been prevented from pursuing others which are 
barely started. Some of these are concisely hinted at in the form of notes. 

Owing to the necessity of compression on the one hand, and the want of 
skill on the other, he has, no doubt, been guilty of the fault noticed, after 
Boileau : 

"J evite d'etre long, ct je deviens obscur." 



DISCOURSE. 



On this day has sailed from the port of Norfolk, the good 
ship Ninus, laden with one hundred and twenty-six of the 
enfranchised sons and daughters of Africa. Like the worthy 
and persecuted associates of William Penn, these voyagers 
seek shelter from oppression in a foreign clime. Delivered 
from the fetters of bondage by the active philanthropy of 
this association, they seek, in the establishment of a new 
colony, the enjoyment of freedom. They embark, the first 
emigrants to the Pennsylvan Colony, on the one hundred 
and fifty-second anniversary of the arrival of Penn, with the 
first English settlers, on the shores of the Delaware! With 
a coincidence so remarkable, an omen so auspicious, may the 
vessel spread her canvass to benignant winds! Bearing with 
her the elements of an independent empire, may Heaven 
penetrate the hearts of her passengers with the magnitude of 
their enterprise, and illumine their minds to direct it with 
wisdom! What friend of humanity will refuse his gratitude 
and joy, at the rescue of one hundred and twenty-six human 
beings from the jaws of slavery? Who will not sympathise 
with those pleasurable and intense emotions, which the event 
is calculated to excite in the hearts of its fortunate instru- 
ments ? 

The reflections which the departure of this band of adven- 
turers must awaken, are peculiar and cheering. In the pos- 
session of present comfort, and joyous with anticipations of 
unqualified freedom and future plenty, how unlike the condi- 
tion of their unhappy ancestors, borne from the cherished 



land of their fathers, with the cruel prospect before them of 
perpetual exile and hopeless servitude! To the mind of sen- 
sibility it is consoling to reflect, that \vc restore to Africa, as 
intelligent and free, the posterity of her sons, whom we re- 
ceived as barbarous and enslaved! It is consoling to reflect, 
that we send tlicni not 'empty away,' but carrying the fruits 
of light and knowledge, and capable of scattering their pre- 
cious seeds upon a soil which has lain neglected and buried, 
for centuries, in the grossest ignorance and night. 

h is the first step which the Young Men's Colonization 
Society of Pennsylvania have taken in this sphere of bene- 
volent exertion. The origin of the body is but of yesterday; 
but its active existence has been the means of conferring 
important benefits upon the parent Institution. It has infused 
into its veins the inspiriting virtue of youthful blood, with 
its impulsive energy. As a branch of the chief establish- 
ment at Washington, it will act upon similar views, and aim 
at similar results. 

Aa an association formed in Pennsylvania, guiding and 
directing the destinies of a colony bearing its honoured 
name, it will seek the establishment of those cardinal doc- 
trine- of government which rendered Penn illustrious, and 
his province happy. It will imitate the colonial policy of a 
, conceded to be far-sighted and virtuous. It will 
infix as corner-stones in the Pc7ifi.il/lvan fabric the princi- 
ples which he inculcated and practised; the principles of 
toleration and temperance — of unbroken faith and universal 
. It will aim, in unison with the parent Society, at 
those pi tctical bli snugs to the American negro and the native 
which it was the great design of that institution to 
pnmn>te and subserve. 

The oec.nsion, therefore, is opportune to recall the reasons 

which suggested the formation of the American Colonization 

i t v . and to take a glance at her leading principles and 

purposes, as they are understood and acted upon in Penn- 
sylvania. 

The distinguished honour of proposing B Society- as it was 
rwmrds modelled, for the colonization of the free blacks 



upon the coast of Africa, belongs to Dr. Finley, of New 
Jersey. It dates its existence, as an organized company, in 
the beginning of the year 1817, upwards of thirty years 
after the formation of the Abolition Society of Pennsylvania, 
the parent of perhaps all the similar institutions in this coun- 
try. Let us survey the wide field of enterprise which the 
condition and prospects of the degraded and wretched sons 
of Africa presented, at that period, to the mind of enlight- 
ened benevolence. 

The introduction of negro slavery into this country be- 
longs to its provincial history. It must go in reduction of 
that debt which we owe to our ancestors — it is an incum- 
brance connected with our English inheritance. Thirteen 
years after the settlement on the James river, a ship load 
of Africans, from the coast of Guinea, was sold to the planters. 
Multitudes, in Virginia and the other colonies, were soon 
after added. New supplies were in a course of constant arrival. 
At length the influx becoming onerous, and the injustice of 
the traffic apparent, further importation was prohibited by 
law. Slaves being thus admitted, and being cherished in the 
southern latitudes on account of their alleged necessity and 
great number, the revolution swept by without effecting their 
emancipation. Legal provision has since been made for the 
gradual removal of slavery in the states north of the Poto- 
mac, but on the south it continues to exist without a sen- 
sible change. 

In other countries servitude has no doubt been in practice, 
more oppressive, being less restrained by benignant legisla- 
tion and the moral tone of society. The laws in all the 
slave-holding states, protect the slave in the enjoyment of 
those qualified rights which are compatible with its recogni- 
tion, as a legal system. But with these assuasives the sys- 
tem prevails, and is attended with too many revolting ap- 
pendages ever to have the approbation of disinterested and 
dispassionate men. It is opposed to the genius of our insti- 
tutions, and at war with that principle of human equality 
which forms at once our political profession and our national 
boast. It sinks its unhappy victim to the dust, and prevents 



8 

him from growing to that moral and intellectual stature be- 
fitting the dignity of a sentient being. 

'llui-i, yip r apetr t s ecrtoivvvfat evfivorta Zt'u^ 

■'i, tvt «i' piv xatu, Sx'kt.ov ttfiap 'sXyOiv. — Od. 17. 323. 

Its effects iij)on the master who lives under it, and upon the 
country which tolerates it, are only less baleful and ruinous. 
Look for a moment at the condition of our southern country, 
where, as well in its moral as its physical aspects, can be 
the sweeping desolation of its blight. The vice of indo- 
lence, and those other vices which march in the train of inac- 
tion, are but too perceptible on every hand. With all the 
advantages of a favourable position for commerce, a genial 
climate and luxuriant soil, we find deserted wharves, grass 
grown streets, and exhausted fallows. Instead of the hardy 
race which should fix upon solid ground the deep foundations 
of our republican edifice, we find them luxurious and effemi- 
nate, unequal to those vigorous exertions which a new system 
in a new country requires. : Those who cannot maintain the 
style of gentlemen, seek subsistence in other states where 
labour is honourable and its recompense less contingent. 
Thus sapped of its strength, its enterprising spirits banished 
by an inexorable necessity — its magnificent fields neglected 
and uncultivated — its inhabitants emasculate by indulgence, 

" The country blooms a garden and a grave." 

To change so lamentable a condition of things — to restore 
man to his civil dignity, if not his native worth — to wrest 



• Monti qaii i attempts to lessen our estimate of the evils of servitude, in 
despotic countries, by alleging that the condition of a alave is hardly more 
burdensome than that ofe subject Though his ideas ol the African race and 
dike abhorrent and uQphilosophical, (See Sp. L. 15 B. 5 
iware of the inconsistency of slavery with political 
which aim at, or establish equality. In relation to such govern- 
ment ' '/ ,s contrary to the spirit of the constitution ; it only con- 
t,ii, n a ji'nri i and luxury to the citizens which they ought not to 
l i., B. L Chap.) Of n- effects upon the master, he says, "hi 
contracts all manner of bad habits with his slaves, he accustoms himself in- 
■ ly to the want <>r all moral virtues, he grow- fierce, hasty, severe, volup- 
■ .ml rrm-l."— >|.. I.. IS IS. I. Chap 



9 

from destruction those virtues which droop if they he not 
carefully cherished — were among the original objects of the 
Abolition Society of Pennsylvania. This institution was 
composed of men of the first distinction and merit; men 
who, fired by that liberty which the revolution established, 
were willing to render that liberty universal. They la- 
boured for the general cause of the African, both bond and 
free. Though legal emancipation was the primary object 
of their convention, their comprehensive and benevolent 
plan embraced in connexion with it, the abolition of the 
slave trade, and the assistance and elevation of the African 
race. Schools were formed under competent teachers, and 
these were watched with the most anxious and unremitted 
assiduity. The operations of the Society, as a corporate 
body, were commenced in the year 1789, but it has, in fact, 
been in energetic agency, since about the year 1785. 
Nearly half a century has witnessed the devoted zeal of 
this philanthropic institution. Is it premature or invidious 
to inquire by what fruits its efforts have been distinguished ? 
After the lapse of so many years, after the application of 
intense and persevering labour, if success has neither been 
realized nor loomed at a distance, is it unfair or unreason- 
able to doubt the final result of the experiment? 

The abolition of our system of slavery in Pennsylvania 
was in 1780, a period of nearly five years before the organi- 
zation of the Abolition Society. Is it a derogation from its 
claim to unquestioned benevolence to deny to it, as a body, 
any instrumentality in the enactment of the abolition law ? 
The association was not in being at the period of its passage. 
The merit of the measure is to be ascribed to the profound 
sense entertained by the legislature, of the injustice and 
evils of slavery, incited as they were by Benezet* and other 
distinguished philanthropists. 

The statute abolished hereditary servitude, and provided 

* In the Life of Benezet, page 92, I find the following account of his instru- 
mentality in the passage of the act. " During the sitting of the legislature 
in 1780, a session memorable for the enaction of a law which commenced the 
2 



10 

for the freedom of the future generation of existing slaves, 
hut those who wen; I hen in existence received no benefit 
from its provisions. 1 ' In 1790, which was ten years after 
the passage of the act, and five after the formation of the 
9 tiety, there were nearly four thousand slaves in the state. 
The Dumber has been gradually diminishing, hut at the census 
of 1S;30, there were in Pennsylvania, sixty-seven slaves, the 
most of whom will irremediably continue till death, the abso- 
lute property of their masters.! This remnant of legal 
bondage has remained unimpaired and unaffected by the 
rtions of the Abolition Society, whose laudable zeal in 
the maintenance of human rights, must be greatly scandalised 
by its continuance. In Connecticut and Rhode Island 
slavery was abolished four years after its inheritable quality 
wis expunged from the code of Pennsylvania, but slaves 
were permitted to exist, and are now actually in being, by 
the operation of their statutes. In New Jersey, according 
to the census of 1S30, there existed the large number of 
two thousand two hundred and forty-six slaves. 

Nor must a fact be omitted in this connexion, that the 
rapid diminution of slaves at the north, is not solely to be 
ascribed to the virtue of unaided statutes, but partly to sales 



gradual abolition of Blavi ry in Pennsylvania, he hud private interviews on the 
sul'jTt, with every member of the government, and no doubt thus essentially 
contributed to the adoption of that celebrated measure." — Life of Anthony 
B R ! rta Vaux. 

' I" ,: ' Milter v. Dwilling, decided in the year 1826, and reported 

in the 1 Ufa volumi of Sergi ant and Rawle's Reports, page 1 12, Judge Tilgh- 
ni "• mi called upon to give a construction to the act of 1780. He decides 
m vi ral inter* sting points, the first of which is, " That the legislature, anxious 
as it w i to abolish alavi ry, thought it unjust to violate the right which ivory 
i r of a slave had to bis service ; and, therefore, every person who, at die 
time of passing the act, «..- a slave, was to remain a Blave." 

• The Dumber of 1 iv< a In P< onsylvania, as returned in the census of 1830, 
is three buodred and eighty-six. I have adopted in the text the number re- 
ported by o select Committee of the Benat Pennsylvania, who were ap- 
point Lhi cauw of the increase since the rear 1820, when the 
aumber returned was but two hundred and elevan< The Committee exclude 
from the computation all who wen not in being when the abolition aet was 
L \ i'i< Journal oj tk< Senatt foi 1832-3, pagt ts;t. 



11 

made to persons in the slave-holding districts, in anticipation 
or fraud of the law. Thus many unfortunate men, whose 
posterity by law would be free, or whose personal servitude 
would expire at a given period, by being sent beyond the 
pale of our jurisdiction, became bound by new and infrangi- 
ble fetters. In the adjoining states of Delaware, Maryland, 
and Virginia, legal servitude survives. If a sentiment has 
been imbibed in either, or all of these, unfavourable to its 
continuance, it is only justice and candour to admit that it 
has arisen from the efforts of their own philanthropists, and 
the influence of those internal causes which foreign argu- 
ment or remonstrance could neither prevent nor accelerate. 
The whole South may be appealed to for the truth of 
the assertion, that certain measures ascribed there to the 
Abolition Societies, in exciting estrangement and hostility 
towards the North, have had the effect of silencing inquiry 
into the justice or policy of the system. Ill-judging indivi- 
duals have greatly contributed to this alienation and repug- 
nance. Assuming, as a principle, that man could not be 
legitimately the subject of property, it was thought to be a 
meritorious act to screen from re-capture, the fugitive who 
should seek an asylum within our borders. Numerous fugi- 
tives from the southern states have thus been enabled, either 
by connivance or active assistance, to elude the pursuit of 
their masters. In vain was it alleged, that the re-delivery of 
the slave to his legal owner, was a right recognised in the 
federal Constitution, and protected by express legislative 
enactment* In vain was it predicted that such resistance 

* The 2d Section of the 4th Art. of the Constitution of the United States pro- 
vides, that " no person held to service or labour in one state, under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation 
therein, be discharged from such service or labour, but shall be delivered up, 
on claim of the party to whom such labour or service is due." A similar 
provision in regard to fugitives from justice, immediately precedes this 
rule in regard to slaves. The learned Du Ponceau, in his " Brief View of the 
Constitution of the United States," thus expresses his sense of this two-fold 
provision, page 45: "Fugitives from justice, and from personal service or 
labour, are to be delivered up, on being demanded in the manner prescribed by 
the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof." Accordingly, an 



I 2 

to rights, acknowledged by (lie laws of a sister state, would 
kindle into a /lame I hose jealousies and suspicions which the 
ints of commerce too frequently engender between in- 
dependent and contiguous states. In vain were his abettors 
reminded of the effects which such interference must inevita- 
bly produce, in tightening the bonds of the slave by all such 
additional cords as the security of his person at home would 
render necessary. In vain were they admonished that the 
retention of a fugitive would prove injurious to the interests 
of Philadelphia, by the invitation it offered to others to make 
this city their refuge. In vain were they solemnly adjured, 
that by exciting indignant feelings at the south, they marred 
the prospect of legislative emancipation — that by concealing 
or harbouring a few runaways, sometimes the worst of the 
class, they forged new manacles for those who remained in 
bondage. Persuasion and remonstrance too often proved 
wholly ineffectual ; for what could these effect against a line 
of conduct prompted by compassion for the slave, and the 
belief that it was a sacred duty to protect him?* 

act of Congress was passed on the 12th of February, 1793, entitled, "An act 
ting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their 
rs." The object of this enactment was to point out the mode by which 
fugitive Blaves shall be restored to th< ir masters in the states from which they 
may have escaped. The Abolition Act of Pennsylvania, which became a law 
opwai before the adoption of the Constitution of the United 

Illicit upon the subject of fugitive slaves from other States, 
although it aimed at the ultimate destruction of our domestic slaver)'. The 
11th section provides, "that the said act, or any thing contained in it, should 
not give any relief or shelter to any absconding or runaway negro or mulatto 
■lave or n rvant, w bo had absent d himself, or should absent himself from his 
or her uHiii r, masU r, or mistress, residing in any other Btate or country, but 
■uch owner, master, or mistress Bhould have like right and aid to demand, 
claim, and or servant, as he might have had in case the 

act bad no) been made." It can hard! irpri e, that the slave- 

holder, smarting under pecuniary loss, Bhould feel little respect ii>r the man 
> philanthropy could lead him to violate rights which were thus recog- 
Lion of the United States, bj act of Congress, and by the 

. cl i" the legal institutions of 
I e i [Forts in 

ill, that he is said to have been instru- 
mental in hl» rat s from bondage ! His 



13 

I do not impute to the Society, as a body, the maintenance 
of such principles nor their reduction into practice. Its vene- 
rable and distinguished President* never would sanction or 
connive at a course of action so hostile to sound policy, and 
the dominion of municipal and constitutional law. But 
whoever may have been instrumental in producing it, the 
consequence is a decided repugnance at the South to all the 
acts of Abolition Societies. Their counsels are derided or 
bitterly laughed at, and their speeches and tracts, being 
branded as 'incendiary,' are neither listened to nor regarded. 
Nothing emanating from such a quarter, receives the decency 
of respect or attention. When the tranquillity of sober re- 
flection is disturbed by objects of excitement, it is easy to 
adopt extravagant sentiments and to suggest new and plau- 
sible reasons in their defence. It was in this state of the 
public sensibilities at the South, that the doctrine of state 
rights was appealed to for the purpose of opposing the en- 
croachments of Northern philanthropists. The cry was heard, 
that their laws were insulted and their property invaded by 
men who had nothing to lose by the toleration or extinction 
of slavery; that a society of another state which had abolished 
its domestic system, were assailing their own local institu- 
tions. The pride of the South coming to the aid of its pas- 
sions and interest soon extinguished all hope of affecting their 



intelligent biographer says : " During the whole course of Mr. Tyson's philan- 
thropic exertions, he was strongly characterized for the profound deference 
which he paid to the laws of the land. * * * Not only because 

this is one of the conditions upon which every citizen has a right to continue 
in the communily, but also because the encouraging of disobedience to the 
laws in one respect, would be the promoting of it in another; disobedience 
would grow into rebellion, and rebellion end in the total subversion of the 
state. It was for these reasons that his appeals in behalf of the persecuted 
Africans were made either to the clemency of individuals, or to the justice of 
the civil judge. * * * But those cases wherein argument and 

persuasion were unavailable, he submitted to the legal tribunals of the country; 
and having placed them there, left them to the future care of those whose oaths 
bound them to do justice." — Life of Elisha Tyson, p. 13, 1 1. 

* William Rawle LL. D., the author of the well known and able work on the 
Constitution of the United States. 



II 

system ol slavery, except through the agency of bodies 
formed by themselves, and of measures in which they could 
personally co-operate. Legislative emancipation, as a phan- 
tom, thus eluded their grasp. Other important objects now 
claimed their attention. These were the destruction of the 
slave trade; the protection of the personal rights of the man 
colour; and the exaltation of his'moral and mental being. 
The department of elevating the negro, a duty of the most 
pleasing but delicate and arduous nature, must, if properly 
understood, lead to the most beneficial results. Tn this pro- 
vince, so peculiarly and justly their own, they have laboured 
with an ardour which no difficulties could cool, no opposition 
extinguish. I claim to be an humble advocate of African 
rights, and a determined enemy to African oppression. I 
would place them where their personal merits would entitle 
them to stand, maugre all the baneful prejudices which their 
distinctive condition has fomented. But do the laws of 
Pennsylvania deny to them any civil or political privilege? 
Do they invidiously point out and distinguish the freeman, 
because he wears a dark complexion, 

" The phadow'd livery of the burnish'd sun ?" 

freeman of colour is here constituted a free citizen, 
with all the incidents of absolute denization. But though 
in possession of all the freedom which laws can confer, 
and aided by a society who have taught him the use of 
letters and the obligations of moral and religious duty, 
he is vel very low in the scale of moral virtue. In elu- 
cidation of this, a reference to the statistics of our prisons 
and penitentiaries is all thai is requisite. In the year 
1827, when the white population of Pennsylvania amounted 
million two hundred thousand, and the black 
only to thirty thousand souls, the criminals confined at 
the penitentiary at Philadelphia, consisted of one hundred 
and twenty-one blacks, and one hundred and seventy-three 
whiti According to the census of 1S30, the population 
P( lylvania was one million three hundred and fort}''- 



15 

seven thousand six hundred and seventy-two persons, of 
which number there were thirty-seven thousand nine hun- 
dred and ninety free coloured inhabitants. The number 
of prisoners in the three penitentiaries of the state, at the 
end of that year, was five hundred and ninety-eight, of 
which two hundred and fifty-three were blacks. If the con- 
victions among the white population were in the same pro- 
portion with the black, instead of there being three hun- 
dred and forty-five convicts in the different penitentiaries 
of the state, an immense and overwhelming multitude, 
would present of between eight and nine thousand! 
Nor is there in the magnitude of the crimes committed, a 
perceptible difference. Among those offences which are 
supposed to exhibit the highest degree of moral turpitude, 
such as larceny, robbery, burglary, and arson, the relative 
proportion of whites and blacks seems to be nearly equal. 
It has sometimes been argued, in explanation of so lament- 
able a disparity, that the conviction of a coloured man is 
procured with more facility than that of a white. All expe- 
rience of our criminal courts rejects the imputation as un- 
founded. It affects too deeply the integrity and justice of 
our judicial tribunals, to be countenanced or discussed with- 
out adequate and particular proof. No ; the fact cannot be 
reasoned against, explained, or impaired, and however reluc- 
tant we may feel to admit the moral inferiority of the black 
man in Pennsylvania, the conclusion is altogether irresistible.* 
Though the statistics of our prisons show the black citizen 



* Heber tell us that the prisons of Moscow and other places in Russia, were 
chiefly filled with slaves, most of whom were in irons. The convictions of 
slaves in the slave-holding states of this union, show the most deplorable dis- 
proportion to those of the whites. Travellers find the prisons crowded with 
slaves. 

For the purpose of contemplating the same men under more favour- 
able circumstances, we must consider them, not in the free state of Penn- 
sylvania, for as I have demonstrated in the text, mere legal freedom confers no 
exemption from crime, but in Liberia. Governor Mechlin says : " As to the 
morals of the colonists, (of Liberia) I consider them much better than those 
of the people of the United States; that is, you may take an equal number of 
the inhabitants from any section of the Union, and you will find more drunk- 



16 

to be more depraved than the white, it must not be forgot- 
. that reasons can I . ied for it, without alleging the 

itence of ingenerate evil beyond the common lot of 
humanity. All philosophy proves, that man must be incited 
to virtue and to greatness, by the impulses of honourable 
ambition and the hopes of reward. We find men starting 
from the sinks of vice and the obscurity of indigence, and 
winning their way to wealth, honour and distinction, amid a 
thousand obstacles, and a thousand obstructions. Even the 
dignity of patrician rank, in England, intrenched as it is 
behind inveterate customs, and all the outposts of princely 
wealth, has been invaded by the daring encroachments of ple- 
beian merit But however elevated the natural spirit, it will 



urds, more profane swearers and Sabbath-breakers, &.c, than in Liberia. 
\ l rarely hear an oath, and us to riots and breaches of the peace, I recollect 
of but one instance, and that of a trifling nature, that lias come under my 
notk' I amed the government of the colony." (.'apt. Sherman says, 

" Tin re is a greater proportion of moral and religious characters in Monrovia 
than in this city," (Philadelphia.) Capt. Abels, who spent thirteen days in 
the settlement, in the early part of lc32, thus attests the moral condition of 
lony ; " 1 saw no intemperance, nor did I hear a profane word uttered 
by an. . 1; ing a minister of the Gospel, on Christmas-day I preached 
both in the Methodist and Baptist Church, to full and attentive congregations, 
of from three to lour hundred persons in each. I know of no place where 
the Sabbath appears to be more respected than in .Monrovia." The following 
testimony is borne by Simpson and Moore, who visited the colony together. 
•• \\ irticularly, the moral state of things, and during our visit, saw 

but one man who appeared to be intemperate, and but two who used any pro- 
fane language. We think the settlers more moral, as a people, than the citi- 
of the United States." It is to be wished, that we had more recent in- 
form • of the criminal calendar. Capt. Sherman, who was in 
Liberia in 1830, furnishei Lh< lutest news upon this Bubject It is, however, 
all that the most sanguine mind could anticipate. Thai gentleman says, "To 
the honour of thi Is, be it mentioned, that but five of their number 

misdemeanour, since l.^x!?." During 

; , which produced but five convictions ' for stealing or mis- 

demi rants averaged one thousand five hun- 

thc moral character of tin colonists of Liberia, were not 

■ i than that of i Pennsylvania in the year 1830, instead 

would have been sextuple that amount; that is to 

iftbt convi i i were in the same proportion to the popula- 

f the i insylvania, instead of Jive, there would 

thirty • onvictiona in tho i tbr< > j ■ . 



17 

remain tame or torpid without some stirring incentive, some 
powerful stimulus to action. When intellectual superiority 
or moral virtue is held in estimation, when its possessor 
is admired and venerated, we find numerous candidates for 
the honours attendant upon its acquisition. Why is all 
this? Because, in the ahsence of legal impediment, humhle 
merit is sure of success, if it be seconded by the feelings 
and sympathies of the people. But can the aspirations of 
the negro in this country be awakened by a similar hope? 
He feels himself the descendant of a slave, and essentially 
distinguished from the mass around him. He sees the 
European foreigner, however differing from us in language 
and habits, possess every exterior resemblance, and give to 
his posterity the characteristics of the nation he has adopted. 
He sees his own offspring but the counterpart of himself, 
and they likely to transmit their inheritance to their suc- 
cessors from generation to generation. He sees that a re- 
pugnance arising from his ancestry and complexion, pre- 
vents him from enjoying those rights which the laws 
accord to him. He feels, that though benevolent solicitude 
for his caste has been alert for nearly a century, yet the 
mere privilege of voting — that franchise, without which, 
liberty is but an empty name, is denied him at the peril of 
his life. He feels that social communion with the white 
man, upon equal terms, is a franchise more difficult to pur- 
chase than that of suffrage to exercise. He feels that the 
very kindness which he experiences, is a kind of abstract, 
short-lived sympathy, at a distance, rather than prompted by 
the admission of undisputed equality, or the desire of nearer 
approach. Thus seeing and thus reasoning, is it surprising 
that his moral and intellectual nature has not yielded to long- 
continued and sedulous care? Promising himself little 
from the pursuits of industry, or the practice of virtue, 
save the gratifications of animal existence, and the peace- 
ful consciousness of acting well, he gives up both in despair. 
In such a state of things it has been suggested, that 
it is the part of Christian philanthropy to break down 
the idle prejudices of lineage and colour by offering to 
3 



18 

the coloured man the refinements of society, and to admit 
him to full participation in the endearments of social in- 
tercourse. Let those who inculcate these doctrines set be- 

ua the spectacle of their own bright example. Let them, 
if they can, thus violate all the sanctities of feeling, all the 
heart felt charities of private life; let them, if they can, upon 
Christian principles, make the invidious distinction between 
the negro and his own correspondent class among the whites. 
An exaltation of the negro above the head of his white com- 
peer, would be unavoidably attended with a twofold impro- 
priety and absurdity. The exclusion of the latter of equal 
deserts is indefensible, invidious and unjust, while the ad- 
mission of the former, places him in a station for which he is 
unfit, and by which he is incapable of deriving advantage. 
A forced and unnatural union, repugnant alike to reason and 
to feeling, must ever be the parent of infelicity. But the 
projectors of amalgamation not having reached that point of 
mural sublimity which can overlook these various objec- 
tions, it may be considered as a question broached, rather as a 
metaphysical abstraction, than with the hope, desire, or ex- 
pectation of ever seeing it reduced to practice. As the negro, 
in this country, is from the causes adverted to, curtailed of 
his moral and mental proportions, it seems rather the dictate 
el enlightened benevolence to frame plans for his ulterior 
improvement and practical melioration, than to seek to render 
him odious by a premature, an indiscreet, and unnatural ele- 
vation. 

Such being the results of long continued and strenuous ef- 
forts at abolition, aud such the condition and prospects of the 

coloun d population, it Beemed to be desirable, that a 
new i ssay should be made, offering more hopeful expectations 

iccess. It was seen that little had been done at the 
x ■•' lli, and (hat the greal work of Southern Abolition could 

not be advanced by companies in the lice states. It was 

thai statutory disability existed to prevent private en- 

oless accompanied l>v removal from the 

slave holding territory. It was seen that the free negroes of 

the I nited States, stinted and restrained in regard to the finer 



19 

properties and higher attributes which characterise humanity 
in positions favourable to its growth and cultivation, were 
abridged of those common enjoyments which usually fall to 
the lot of man in a free country. It was under these circum- 
stances, and with these impressions, that the Colonization So- 
ciety grew into being. Though commenced in the North, it met 
with approbation in the South, and from the era of its estab- 
lishment to the present time, both the North and the South 
have harmoniously united in the projects of an enterprise so 
transcendently good and glorious. The simple scheme of re- 
moving to Africa all who should consent to emigrate, would, 
it was honestly believed, promote the ultimate hopes of the 
Abolition Societies. Let these institutions, by mental and 
moral culture, prepare the negro for self-government in his 
father-land. Let them unfold to the free blacks the advan- 
tages which are likely to accrue to themselves, their brethren, 
and posterity, from erecting free governments in Africa. 
Let them paint to their imaginations, with pencils glowing 
with the greatness of the truth, the enjoyments of unrestrain- 
ed liberty and perfect equality, in a region designed by 
nature, both in its climate and productions, for their exclu- 
sive possession.* Let them awaken their ambition as the 

* There seems to be a peculiar fitness in placing the negro in Africa, when 
it is recollected that large portions of its immense tracts are suited only to his 
constitution. The white man will languish and die beneath a sun which is con- 
genial to the animal nature of the black man. Nature herself, therefore, would 
seem to concur with this philanthropy, unless it be thought that she designed 
those regions, which are so well calculated for the residence of the latter, and 
for him only, to lie waste and uninhabited. Capt. Nicholson, of the U. S. Navy, 
says of Liberia, which he visited in 1828, " It was, I believe, never intended 
that the whiLe man should inhabit this region of the globe : at least, we know 
that the diseases of this climate are more fatal to him than to the man of 
colour. They luxuriate in the intense heat, while a white man sinks under 
its exhausting influence." I cannot forbear from quoting, in confirmation of 
these views, some judicious remarks of a learned writer in a late number of 
the Phrenological Journal of Edinburgh. "If we look," says he, " to that well 
marked and vast peninsula called Africa, we find that equally marked race, 
the negro, with slight modifications, forming its native population throughout 
all its regions. We find the temperature of his blood, the chemical action of 
his skin, the very texture of his wool-like hair, all fitting him for the vertical 
&un of Africa; and if every surviving African of the present day, who is living 



•jo 

founders of a future commonwealth, to he virtuous and en- 
lightened, rich in (he ownership of multiplied blessings, and 
widely diffusive in the effects of example and influence. If 
Ihey do this, wc shall find the American negro, now dwin- 
dled in his morals and intellect, developing those latent capa- 
cities and inborn energies, which, though oppression might 
check or conceal, it could not uproot and destroy. We shall 
find him planting a tree in the midst of a howling desert, 
bearing the rich fruits of religion, civilization, and liberty, 
and inviting to the covert of its thick spreading branches and 
clustering foliage, the people of a continent which has lain 
so long exposed, uncovered, defenceless, and oppressed. 

The direct and incidental effects of Colonization are very 
large and expansive. They are not limited to a qualified 
benefit resulting to the free blacks only, at the expense of 
injury to the slave, but comprehend in their wide range the 
cause of abolition, the absolute disenthraling of the man of 
colour, the extinction of the slave trade, and the civilization 
of Africa. For the accomplishment of these great purposes, 
an extensive region of sea-coast has been selected on the 
western side of the African continent, stretching two hun- 
dred and eighty miles from the river Gallinas on the north, 
to the territory of Kroo Settra on the south. Being intended 
for the abode of freemen, this extensive domain bears the 
appropriate title, Liberia. The actual jurisdiction of the 
Colony, at present, extends one hundred and fifty miles from 
Cape Mount to Trade Town. Between these points is beau- 
tifully situated, at Bassa Cove, the locality of the Pennsyl- 
ruu Colony. A lew leagues beyond the northern limits of 



in degradation and destitution in othi r lands, i « >r which he teas never intended, 

w i r. actually restored to the /» evJiar land of his peculiar race, in independence 

and comfort, would any man \< oture to affirm, that Christianity had been lost 

• ol by alt u ho bad in any way contributed to such a consummation ? It 

malli r- not to brotherly love on which side of the Atlantic the negro is made 

• \ miiuoii , and happy, if he is actual!} so far blessed; but it does 

r on which aide of the ocean you place him, when there is only one where 

II I*.- an happy ami respectable as hem volcnec would wish to see him, 

and certainly thrrr, a rightly applied morality and religion would sanction his 

being placed." 



21 

Liberia, stretches the more ancient settlement of Sierra 
Leone, and at its southern extremity stands the flourishing 
little establishment at Cape Palmas. A glance at the map of 
Africa, discovers a continuous line of sea-coast from the 
north-west to the south-east of five hundred miles, which is 
now dotted by prosperous and Christian communities. These 
are the green spots which the plastic hand of Colonization 
has formed out of a trackless region of boundless wilderness. 
The selection made, it is supposed, embraces more advantages 
of fertility, site, salubrity, and commerce, than any other 
which the extensive western coast of Africa affords. 

The first settlement at Liberia was in the year 1822. It 
now includes about ten thousand citizens who have submitted 
to regular government. Of these several thousands belong to 
the native tribes who have voluntarily placed themselves 
under its protection; many hundred are recaptured Africans; 
and the remainder are emigrants from this country. Here 
is the germ of a powerful and independent commonwealth, 
destined, perhaps, to carry into the heart, and to the remote 
extremities of Africa, our religion, laws, civilization, and 
language. 

The fierceness of opposition, and the easiness of popular 
credulity, have combined in casting the most cruel aspersions 
upon the condition and prospects of Liberia. The mistakes 
of agents and the temporary miscarriage of favourite plans, 
have been magnified into events of vital and insuperable con- 
sequence. Its existing state has been represented to ad- 
venturers as supremely unhappy, and the country, in point of 
climate, as a yawning tomb. The least examination will 
show that these assertions are without adequate basis, and 
that the colony, both in climate and the prosperous condition 
of its inhabitants, presents the most flattering inducements to 
emigrants. — All new countries in a course of improve- 
ment, are liable to the visitation of febrile distempers. The 
decomposition of that decaying vegetable matter which their 
falling forests constantly supply, must furnish nutriment to 
disease. Change of residence from a temperate to a tro- 
pical climate, must likewise impart an injurious influ- 



22 

ence. In Liberia, these causes concur and are in full 
operation, without giving rise to greater mortality than 
happens in the most salutary districts of our western coun- 
try. ' Better evidence need not be adduced of the salu- 



* The truth of the declaration in the text, can be well established by cita- 
tions from tin r< ports of the agents of the parent Society, and the writings of 
and disinterested visitors. I shall confine myself to a few quota- 
tions. In February, 1828, Dr. Mechlin writes, "This month, although called 
by those resident lure, the sickly season, has not, to judge from the few cases 
of illness that have come under my notice, merited that appellation. Indeed, 
I do not know any pari of the United States where the proportion of the sick is 
not fully as great as here, and the cases of a refractory nature arc almost all 
yielding to medicine." In April, the same gentleman, referring to the newly 
arrived ('migrants, says, " I never saw any fever in the United States yield 
more readily to medicine than the country fever, among the emigrants, at this 
season." In August, he writes, " that only four or five cases of sickness exist, 
and that at no time had health been more generally enjoyed." In December, 
Dr. Randall writes thus : " The climate, during this month, is most delightful. 
Though this is regarded as the sickly season, wc have but little disease, and 
none of an alarming character." During this period, when, according to 
Mi i I il in, only four or Jive cases of sickness existed, the population of the emi- 
grants was about twelve hundred persons. In the circular Address of the Colo- 
nists to the Free People of Colour of the United States, published about the same 
time with these tcstimoniesof the yi//ysiri»ns of the Colony, we find this candidand 
intelligi nt representation of their experience and prospects in regard tohealth. 
'■ \\ e enjoy health, after a few month's residence in the country, as uniformly 
and in as perfect a degree, as wc possessed that blessing in our native country. 
And B distressing scarcity of provisions, or any of the comforts of life, has for 
the I. ist two yean been entirely unknown, even to the poorest persons in this 
community. On these points there are, and have been, much misconception, 
and some malicious misrepresentation in the United States. * * * 

,1 out of every ship's company have, within the last four years, been 
carried off by sickness, caused by the change of climate. And death occa- 
sionally takes a victim from our number, without any regard at all to the time 
of his r. id* i '.ci in this country. Put we never hoped, by leaving America, to 
the common lot of mortals — the necessity of death, to which the just 
appointment of Leaven consigns us. But we do expect to live as long, and pass 

litis lift inth <ik little sickness at i/mii si In s. 

'Tin true character of the African climate is not well understood in other 
countries, Itt inhabitants art at robust, at healthy, as long-lived, to say the 

I-*/ i, as thobe of am/ other country. Nothing like an epidemic has ever ap- 

1 olonv ; nor can we learn from the natives, that the calamity 

cknen ever yet visited this part of the continent. But the 

chnnjo fan ■ temperate to a tropical country is a great one — too great not to 



23 

brity of the climate, than the fact, that the black inhabitants 
of the Southern states are scarcely sensible of change. They 
seldom contract the fever to which emigrants from the 
Northern latitudes are frequently subject. Misgivings of the 

affect the health, more or less — and, in the case of old people, and very young 
children, it often causes death. In the early years of the Colony, want of good 
houses, the great fatigues and dangers of the settlers, their irregular mode of 
living, and the hardships and discouragements they met with, greatly helped 
the other causes of sickness. * * But we look back to those times 

as to a season of trial long past, and nearly forgotten. Our houses and cir- 
cumstances are now comfortable ; and for the last two or three years, not one 
person in forty, from the ?niddle and southern States, has died from the change 
of climate." 

Capt. Nicholson, of the United States Navy, who had visited Liberia on hia 
return from a cruise in the Mediterranean, thus writes to Henry Clay, under 
date of the 17th March, 1828 : 

" The population is now twelve hundred, and is healthy and thriving. The 
children born in the country are fine looking, and I presume can be raised as 
easily as those of the natives. All the colonists with whom I had any commu- 
nication, (and with nearly the whole I did communicate in person, or by my 
officers,) expressed their decided wish to remain in their present situation, 
rather than to return again to the United States." 

Capt. Sherman, who, in the year 1830, conducted to Liberia fifty-eight 
emigrants from this country, and who was there for three weeks, in the month 
of March, thus speaks his honest impressions : 

" It has been objected that the climate is very unhealthy — this is true as 
respects the whites, but erroneous as respects the coloured people. Those 
from the middle and northern States have to undergo what is called a season- 
ing — that is, they generally take the fever the first month of their residence, 
but it has rarely proved fatal, since accommodations have been prepared for 
their reception ; those from Georgia, the Carolinas, and the southern parts of 
Virginia, either escape the fever altogether, or have it very slightly. Deaths 
occur there, indeed, as in other places, but Doctor Mechlin, the agent, assured 
me thaWAe bills of mortality would show a less proportion of deaths, than those 
of Baltimore, Philadelphia, or New York." 

Simpson and Moore, two intelligent and respectable coloured men, visited 
the different settlements in the summer of 1832, and report their sense of the 
health of the country as follows : " Wherever we went, the people appeared to 
enjoy good health ; and a more healthy looking people, particularly the chil- 
dren, we have not seen in the United States. * * * Our own 
health, while in the Colony, was perfectly good, although we were much ex- 
posed to the night air." (Vide Dr. Hodgkin's remarks on the value and respec- 
tability of this evidence, in his inquiry into the merits of the American Coloni- 
zation Society, &c. p. 33.) Without multiplying extracts, which, from a variety 
of sources, and of similar import, might be greatly increased, I will add the 



24 

climate must be removed by adverting to the sound constitu- 
tions of tin- native inhabitants. They survive to an age be- 
yond the prescribed limit of l three score and ten,' and carry 
with them through life, in strength of limb and rotundity of 
form, abundant proof of the excellence of their native air. 
The original emigrants to Liberia were not exempt from 
those hardships and privations to which first settlers are ne- 
cessarily exposed. Unacquainted with the dispositions of the 
people, and ignorant of the peculiarities of the soil, their sub- 
sistence was precarious and slender. Care, privation, and 
disease brought some to a premature grave.* But the diffi- 



conclusion to which Dr. Uodgkin,thc amiable and excellent writer just quoted, 
came, in the year L833, after an attentive examination of all the documents 
connected with the subject. As a foreign writer, and a man of the most bene- 
volent and praiseworthy character, his impressions, derived from a perusal of 
the whole testimony, are of intrinsic value. lie says in his Inquiry, p. 35, 
" According to the official statements respecting the health of the colonists at 
Liberia, it does not appear that the mortality, notwithstanding the influx of 
new settlers — who would have a kind of seasoning to undergo, whatever 
might have been the situation to which they had removed — has much, if at all, 
exceeded the mortality in the United States." From these representations, 
can it be doubted, that when the colonists shall have turned their attention 
more to agriculture than trade — when the forests shall have been prostrated, 
the population increased, and its comforts augmented — we shall hear little com- 
plaint against Liberia on thi score of climatt ' 

•Sierra Leone, which, notwithstanding the disregard it has experienced of 
late years, has done so much for the surrounding tribes of barbarians, and 
traction of the slave-trade in that part of Africa, showed, in its 
i ;irlv history, a mortality alarming in the extreme. If the tithe could be rea- 
sonably alii ged of Liberia, which is truly related of Sierra Leone, thecnterprise 
would Ion;/ since have been abandoned. The obstacles which the English 
Company encountered and subdued, would have appalled and disheartened 
Ami ricans. ^dara Hi d{ m, in the appendix t" his letter to M. .lean Baptistc 
on the comparative expense of free and Blavc labour, published in 1823, 
the following melancholy account of the misfortunes to which the first 
colonists ;it Sierra Leone wi : d: "This colony (Sierra Leone,) may 

in to the hi" rality and benevolent exertions of the ccle- 
brated QramnUU Sharp. \t the time when the decision of Lord Mansfield, in 
the memorable caw of the negro Somerset, had established the axiom, that 
"<;* sunn us urn/ slave sits /us foot on English ground, he becomes free" 
than were many n< proi in London uho had been brought over by their mas> 
\ .-[ largi proportion of these had no longer owners to support them, 
nor any pariidi from which thoy could claim relief, they fell into great distress, 



25 

culties which Liberia has encountered, are those only of all 
colonial settlements. Their early history presents an uniform 
aspect, one unvarying page ; it is marked by discouragement 
and disaster, by disappointment and mortality. The parent 
and nurse of all the Spanish establishments in America, 
proved a certain burying-place to most of the primitive 
adventurers. Of the thirty-eight persons left in Hispaniola, 
by Columbus, as the seed of a colony, all had perished in ten 
months after, on his return from Spain. The armament 
which Ovando conducted thither in 1502, carried two thou- 
sand five hundred colonists. One thousand of these fell vic- 
tims to disease. Notwithstanding these sad indications of a 
fatal temperature, and the mortality which, at the conclusion 
of the last and beginning of the present century, thinned the 
ranks of the French and English armies which successively 
invaded that island, yet all recent voyagers agree, that to the 
coloured inhabitants, who are now its undisputed possessors, 
the climate is propitious and healthful. Of the colonists con- 
ducted by Sir Walter Raleigh to the coast, now forming a 



and resorted in crowds to their patron, Granville Sharp, for support. * * 
He determined upon sending them to some spot in Africa, the general land of 
their ancestors, where, when they were once landed under a proper leader, and 
with proper provisions for a time, and proper implements of husbandry, they 
might, with but moderate industry, provide for themselves. * * * 

Nothing could be more discouraging than the calamities which befell the un- 
dertaking from its very outset. Of four hundred black people who left the 
Thames on the 22d February, 1787, under convoy of His Majesty's sloop of 
war Nautilus, not more than one hundred and thirty, (who were afterwards 
reduced to forty,) remained" alive at, and in one body, at the end of the rainy 
season, into which they had been thrown by the death of Mr. Smeathman, 
notwithstanding Mr. Sharp's strenuous efforts to avoid it. Disaster followed 
disaster. Famine, disease, discontent, desertion, succeeded each other with 
frightful rapidity, till the year 1789, when the Colony, again in a state of im- 
provement, was almost annihilated by a hostile attack from a neighbouring 
chief." These calamities have long since ceased, and no objection is now 
heard to the climate of Sierra Leone, in its influence upon the coloured popula- 
tion, and no fears entertained of the natives or of famine. The neglect which 
it has suffered, has prevented it from realizing all that might be expected from 
it. It has rendered the colonists happy, and greatly suppressed the slave-trade. 

4 



26 

constituent part of North Carolina, and of others who subse- 
quently followed, not one survived to tell the story of their 
melancholy fate. The settlement at James Town, in 1607, 
narrowly escaped a similar miscarriage. One half of the 
_::nal emigrants were, in a few months, swept away by 
famine and distemper. Those who remained thrice formed 
the resolution of abandoning the Colony and returning to 
England. Of five hundred settlers whom the chivalrous 
and devoted Smith left in Virginia, but sixty were in being 
a few months after ; and they, enfeebled by famine, and de- 
jected by various misfortunes, were projecting a speedy de- 
parture from the land of their hardships and sufferings. The 
Colony at New Plymouth experienced like embarrassments. 
In Biz months after the landing of the pilgrims, owing to the 
unaccustomed rigours of an eastern winter, and the fatigues 
and hardships inseparable from a new settlement, nearly half 
of the adventurers had died. A great pestilence, they were 
informed by the Indian Chief, Samoset, had raged four years 
before, and swept the populous region of Patuxet. To their 
other calamities, was added the sterility of a rocky and stub- 
born soil, the productions of which, after untiring and labo- 
rious cultivation, were always uncertain. The distresses of 
famine threatened them at. every step; they subsisted upon 
fish, with precarious supplies of corn and beans, procured 
from the Indians. It is not necessary to remind Pennsyl- 
vania ns of the hardships encountered by those worthy pio- 
neers of the wilderness, who landed on the shores of the 
I). I.iw are, on this day one hundred and fifty-two years ago. It 
Lb not necessarj to recount the perplexities and dials which 
their situation imposed — of their disappointment and con- 
sternation in finding caves for their dwelling places, and 
i in j - tracts of forests in the promised land. With 

such examples, and other lights which history sheds, let 
Liberia be viewed, and it will be seen that less hardship and 
disaster, less mortality and discontent, cannot be found in 
settlement which the long narrative of colonial annals 
rds. The concurring testimonies of Captain Stockton and 
Captain Nicholson, who risited Liberia in 18)88; ot Captain 



27 

Sherman, in 1830; of Captain Kennedy and Captain Abel, 
in 1831; of Hannah Kilham, in 1832; and of Captain Voor- 
hees, towards the close of the past year, establish, beyond 
the possibility of question, its striking fitness for its destined 
object. In confirmation of these disinterested and respectable 
travellers, are the reports of the agents, the letters of the colo- 
nists, and the evidence of British and French naval officers 
who have occasionally visited the settlement. They unite in 
repesenting it as the abode of peaceful content and smiling 
plenty. The preposterous and unfounded statements of one 
or two unknown or discredited witnesses, are entitled to no 
respect from the honest inquirer. Like the fabulous stories 
circulated against colonial Pennsylvania, in the life-time of 
the Founder, better information and more enlarged expe- 
rience prove their folly and untruth.* 



* The unknown witness brought forward by James G. Birney, in his re- 
cent letter against Colonization, exceeds, in the monstrosity of its allega- 
tions, the hardihood of all his predecessors. Having never before heard of the 
Rev. Samuel Jones, thus distinguished in the letter, I know him only by the 
account there given, that ' he is a coloured man, and had been a slave in 
Kentucky,' and by his testimony concerning Liberia. I copy the whole de- 
scription, to enable the reader to see how ruthless and fierce are the attacks 
upon this devoted settlement. " On the fourth day, Mr. King (Agent of the 
Tennessee Colonization Society,) suggested that we ought now to visit the 
poor. We accordingly did so, and of all misery and poverty, and all repining 
that my imagination had ever conceived, it had never reached what my eyes 
now saw, and my ears heard. Hundreds of poor creatures, squalid, ragged, 
hungry, without employment — some actually starving to death, and all praying 
most fervently that they might get home to America once more. Even the 
emancipated slave craved the boon of returning again to bondage, that he 
might once more have the pains of hunger satisfied. There are hundreds 
there who say they would rather come back and be slaves than stay in Liberia. 
They would sit down and tell us their tale of suffering and of sorrow, with 
such a dejected and wo-begone aspect, that it would almost break our hearts. 
They would weep as they would talk of their sorrows here, and their joys in 
America — and we mingled our tears freely with theirs. This part of the po- 
pulation included, as near as we could judge, two-thirds of the inhabitants of 
Monrovia." Two-thirds of the inhabitants discontented, and hundreds rather 
be slaves than remain in Liberia ! Hundreds hungry, and some actually 
starving to death ! Misery beyond what the imagination can conceive, the 
eyes ever saw, or the ears heard ! The surprise is not that a spurious bill may 
get into circulation, but that it should find such an indorser as James G. Bir- 



28 

Such is the country in which the Colonization Society has 
invited the hlack man of America to fix his permanent habi- 
tation. It offers him, ' without money and without price/ a 



ncy. This account is opposed by the letter of the colonists themselves, and the 
concurring testimonies of the most respectable travellers, from the year 1828 
to tho present time. The letter from the colonists represents the face of the 
country as covered with perpetual verdure, and that the soil in fertility is not 
surpassed on the bee of the earth — that the colonists are blessed with plenty, 
and enjoy content — that wages are high, and mechanics of nearly every trade 
are sure of constant and profitable employment. They say, " Truly we have 
a goodly heritage ; and if there is any thing lacking in the character or con- 
dition of the people of this Colony, it never can be charged to the account of 
the country : it must be the fruit of our own mismanagement, or slothfulness 
or vices." (See the Circular of the Colonists, in extenso, in Thirteenth Annual 
Report of the American Society for colonizing the free people of colour of the 
United States, p. 30, et seq.) Capt. Nicholson thus writes in 1828 : " I cannot 
give you better evidence of the prosperity of the Colony, than by mentioning 
that eight of my crew (coloured mechanics,) after going on shore two several 
days, applied for, and received their discharge, in order to remain as perma- 
rs. These men had been absent from their country upwards of 
three years, and had, among them, nearly two thousand dollars in clothes and 
money. Had they not been thoroughly convinced that their happiness and 
prosperity would be better promoted by remaining among their free brethren 
in Liberia, they would not have determined on so momentous a step as quit- 
ting the United States, perhaps forever, where they all had left friends and 
relatives. 
"The appearance of all the colonists, those of Monrovia, as well as those of Cald- 
well, indicated mort than contentment. Their manners were those of freemen, 
who experienced the blessings of liberty, and appreciated the boon. Many of 
them bad, by trade, accumulated a competency, if the possession of from three 
to five thousand dollars may be called so." 

Capt Sherman, whose visit was in the year 1830, thus writes of the comfort 
and contentment of the settli rs : 

" Monrovia, at present, consists of about ninety dtoeUing houses and stores, 

itri} houses for public worship, and « court house. Many of the dwellings are 

handsome and convenient, and '/// of them comfortable. The plot of the town 

■ r. d more than a mile square, elevated about seventy feet above the level 

of the sea, and contains sirm hundred inhabitants. 

" 'I hi' township of Caldwell is about seven miles from .Monrovia, on St. 

Paul's ri\( r, and contains a population of five hundred and sixty agricultu- 

1 fertile, the situation pleasant, and the people 

satisfied and happy, The emigrants carried out by me, and from whom I re- 

y account of that part of Ihe country, are 
lomtrd h. -■ 

1831. He thus states the result of his inquiries 
»nd observations i " I sought out th< most shrewd and intelligent of the colo- 



29 



home of freedom and plenty in the land of his fathers. It 
offers him a sanctuary from wrong and persecution. It 
offers him the unwonted prospect of an unclouded and bril- 



nists, many of whom were personally known to me, and by long and many 
conversations, endeavoured to elicit from them any dissatisfaction with their 
condition, (if such existed,) or any latent design to return to their native country. 
Neither of these did I observe. On the contrary, I thought I could perceive 
that they considered that they had started into a new existence ; that, disen- 
cumbered of the mortifying relations in which they formerly stood in society, 
they felt themselves proud in their attitude," «Scc. &c. Fifteenth Report, 1832. 

Capt Abel gives this emphatic testimony. He was in the Colony in the 
latter part of December, 1831. " All my expectations in regard to the aspect 
of things, the health, harmony, order, contentment, industry, and general pros- 
perity of the settlers, icas more than realized. There are about two hundred 
buildings in the town of Monrovia, extending along the Cape Montserado, not 
far from a mile and a quarter. Most of these are good substantial houses and 
stores, the first story of many of them being of stone; and some of them hand- 
some, spacious, and with Venitian blinds. Nothing struck me as more re- 
markable than the great superiority in intelligence, manners, conversation, 
dress, and general appearance in every respect over their coloured brethren in 
America. So much ivas I pleased with ichat I saw, that I observed to the peo- 
ple, ' Should I make a true report, it would hardly be credited in the United 
States^ Among all that I conversed with, J did not find a discontented per- 
son, or hear one express a desire to return to America. I saw no intemperance, 
nor did I hear a profane word uttered by any one. Being a minister of the 
Gospel, on Christmas day I preached," &c. The pious Hannah Kilham, who 
visited Liberia in 1832, said nothing of the want, misery, and discontent de- 
scribed by Jones. Can there be a doubt, that if either existed, she would 
not have seen and mentioned it ? Dr. Hodgkin states, that she left England 
by no means prepossessed in favour of Liberia. She speaks of the moral con- 
dition and comforts enjoyed by many of the colonists, and of the respectful 
and cheerful attention paid by the pupils in the girls' school at Caldwell, to the 
teacher, whose union of gentleness and firmness, she extols. Not a word in 
confirmation of Jones. 

Simpson and Moore, two respectable coloured men, one of whom is a clergy- 
man, visited the Colony, at the request of their free coloured brethren of 
Natches, likewise in the year 1832. The following is the evidence they fur- 
nished : " As a body, the people of Liberia, we think, owing to their circum- 
stances, have risen in their style of living, and their happiness, as a community, 
is far above those of their coloured brethren, even the ?nost prosperous of them, 
that we have seen in the United Stales. They feel that they have a home. 
They have no fear of the white or the coloured man. They have no superiors. 
They do not look up to others, but they are looked up to by them. Their laws 
grow out of themselves, and are their own. They truly sit under their own 



30 

liant future. Hut in presenting the invitation, its duty is 
performed, and it goes no further. It disavows all constraint 
or compulsion, for these would imply an authority which 
no where exists, and is no where pretended. It professes 
itself the friend of the coloured man, because he is degraded 
by our laws, and sometimes, as in Pennsylvania, in despite 
of legal regulations. It desires to take him from a country 
where he must languish in inferiority, and where he never 

vine and fig-tree, having none to molest and make them afraid. Since our 
return, we have been in the houses of some of the.most respectable men of 
colour in New York and Philadelphia, but have seen none, on the whole, so 
well furnished as many of the housi s of .Monrovia. The floors are, in many 
cases, well carpeted, and all things about these dwellings appear neat, conve- 
ne nt, and comfortable. There arc five schools, two of which we visited, and 
much pleased with the teachers and the improvement of the children. 
It < found only two persons who expressed any dissatisfaction; 
and we have had much reason to doubt whether they had any good cause 
for it." 

(apt. Voorhees, of the United States Navy, arrived at anchorage in the bay of 
Montserado on the 9th of December, 1833. He dates his report to the Secre- 
tary of the Navy at that Cape, on the 14th. He says, "Piracy has not afflicted 
this quarter for sometime; and the inhabitants at the settlements living in 
undisturbed peace and tranquillity, seem to entertain very encouraging confi- 
in tin ir future security." Alter speaking of the kind of people who 
should be sent to Liberia, he saj , " Such persons of colour here, in the land of 
their ancestors, find a home and a country, and here only, do they find them- 
redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled." An intelligent old man, 
of age, with whom I conversed, Btated that he had been here 
about months, and was getting on cleverly for himself and his 

family, " but that on no account would he return to the United States." The 
to whom it i» necessary to refer, in contradiction of the Rev. 
aamuelJonee, is a coloured man, who bears the name simply of Joseph Jones. 
He was m nt out by the Kentucky Colonization Society, for the purpose of ex- 
amining "fully the situation of the Colony of Liberia." The Board of 
Managers of the Kentucky Society Bpeakofhim "as a man of excellent cha- 
ol a clear and vigorous understanding, and possessed of those qualities 
which maki a man useful I He reached Liberia on the 11th of 

uad remained in the Colony nine months and twenty-nine days. 
H ' itimony, therefore, relates to Liberia, as it was about the middle of the 
' To the qu put to him during his examination, " Do the colo- 

ti Bed '" his reply is, "I was particular m my inquiries, and 
1 ■•! the large majority well satisft d, and would not return to this country 

lid." The Editor ofth< Western Luminary, who had a corner- 
, under date of 90th July, 1834. " He represented the 
lly contented, and apparently happy." 



31 

can be happy, to a land capable of bestowing upon himself and 
his posterity the blessings of happiness and liberty forever. 

One of the inseparable incidents, and unavoidable effects of 
Colonization, is to induce the emancipation of slaves. It has 
already given freedom to above one thousand human beings. 
The number is small, only because the ability of the institution 
has been restricted. In 1830, the owners of upwards of six 
hundred slaves offered them for manumission, for the pur- 
pose of being conveyed to Liberia. The Society of Friends 
of North Carolina manumitted several hundred slaves, whose 
liberation had been denied by the legislature for a period of 
fifty years, to enable them to enjoy freedom in the African 
Colony. Benevolent individuals, who feel a kind of paternal 
solicitude for the future welfare of those servile dependents, 
entreat the Society to take them for the same munificent 
purpose. The noble-minded liberality of M'Donough, of 
Louisiana, who asked for legislative permission to educate 
his servants, with a view to ultimate enfranchisement in the 
land of their ancestors, must be vivid in the public recollec- 
tion. But the evidences of a desire on the part of South- 
ern masters to manumit their slaves, if a proper asylum can 
be procured for their reception, are too numerous and pub- 
lic to require elucidation. Suifice it, that if the funds of 
the institution were augmented a hundred fold, and the capa- 
bilities of the Colony were commensurately increased, they 
would all be put in requisition by the extended and increas- 
ing eagerness manifested at the South for voluntary emanci- 
pations. Ten thousand slaves tvould at this moment be re- 
leased from thraldom, if they could be transport edfrom the 
country. It is upon these grounds that colonization addresses 
itself to the benevolent wishes and active support of the 
friends of abolition. Here is a mode in which experience 
has taught us that abolition can be effected. But it is ob- 
jected that the process is slow ; that the condition of expat- 
riation is hard and cruel ; that liberations by private indi- 
viduals may have the effect of retarding legislative action ; 
and that, as it may prove but a temporary assuasive, it will 
allure the attention of the South from the efficient remedy. 



32 

Must it then become a question upon which benevolence 
can . whether slavery in America is preferable to 

freedom in Africa? But a slight consideration of the objec- 
tions shows, that they are captious, untenable, and erroneous. 
If Colonization decoy the inflamed South from the contem- 
plation of measures pursued by the ill-judging North, its re- 
sults must be permanently salutary. It restores that mental 
equilibrium which, on a question affecting private property, 
is essential to the exercise of a just and enlightened discre- 
tion. Whatever may be the plea for interfering with pecu- 
niary interest, and however upright and disinterested the 
motive, any attempt to impair it, must unavoidably awaken 
feeling and bring about resistance. Allay this hostility by 
abstaining from harsh imputations and unkindly acts, and 
half the obstructions to abolition are removed. But why 
will voluntary emancipations, or the removal of free blacks 
and manumitted slaves, delay the period of legislative action? 
By what means, and through what agency, is legislative 
action effected ? Is it not by that silent process by which 
private sentiment is influenced ? The slave-holder who 
noblv resigns that property which was legally his own, has 
new feelings and sensibilities. He no longer retains an 
interest in the continuance of slavery as a system. His 
sentiments arc opposed to it. They become as expansive as 
ta the extent of his influence. Some adopt his reasoning, 
and imitate his example. These become the centre of other 
circles, which grow wider and more numerous, till at length 
they diffuse themselves into a dense and undistinguished mass. 
In proportion as the work of private emancipation advances, 
the cause of public abolition is hastened. With each case 
of voluntary liberation secured, the seed is sown for a future 
and larger harvest of freemen. When, by these means, pri- 
\ ate sentiment shall ha\ e been roused to the natural injustice, 
the republican inconsistency, and political evils of servitude, 
may indulge a well-grounded hope, that its legal extinc- 
tion is at hand, [fl it not then a work to which benevolent 
men and benevolent legislatures ought to contribute? If the 
to pari with their slaves, can the North do less 



33 

than incur the expense of providing them with a suitable 
abode? Is it a proof of philanthropy and patriotism which 
our Southern brethren can admit as conclusive, that the North 
should inveigh against servitude without assisting to effect 
its abolition? If slavery be a national evil, as citizens they 
should participate in the pecuniary burdens which its de- 
struction imposes. With the adoption of such sentiments 
and corresponding generosity in contribution, the whole 
South might be drained of its slaves before the actual cessa- 
tion of servitude in those Northern States, which vaunt so 
loudly of ' equal liberty and equal rights.' 

But the aims of Colonization are not limited to the extinc- 
tion of bondage in America, but it pursues to Africa with 
vigilant solicitude the objects of its sympathies and care. It 
proposes to render them not only free, but intelligent and 
happy. It offers for their acceptance a fertile and luxuriant 
country, requiring only the hand of industry and labour to 
render it the garden spot of the tropics. It offers to the un- 
informed emigrant the prospect of education by means of 
schools and libraries, and to the man of serious and higher 
contemplations, the advantages of congregational devotion. 
It may safely be asserted, that history presents no example 
of a Colony under better auspices — none with so many solid 
reasons for the anticipation of success, and so few to justify 
the apprehension of failure or miscarriage. 

Colonization, in the wide circle of its benefits, has been 
but partially displayed. It includes not merely abolition, 
and the restoration of the African to that liberty of which he 
and his progenitors have been deprived for ages ; but taking 
a survey of consequential advantages, it seeks the annihilation 
of the slave-trade, and the civilization of Africa. With- 
out yielding to that ardour of enthusiasm which a scheme so 
grand and comprehensive is calculated to inspire, let us, in 
the sober spirit of philosophical inquiry, calmly look at the 
probabilities of its promised achievements. 

The detestable traffic, called the slave-trade, extensively 
prevails in defiance of the laws and treaties made for its sup- 
pression. From the acts passed by the Colonial Assembly 
5 



34 

of Virginia, commencing in 1699, clown to the period when 
the Congress at Vienna, solemnly engaged for its cessation 
in Europe, a series of prohibitory laws were enacted, and 
man}' strenuous exertions made, to bring it to a practical ter- 
mination. All signally failed. Laws and treaties, and navies 
to compel their execution, were alike ineffectual. In 1816, 
a period subsequent to the abolition of the traffic in Great 
Britain and the United States; subsequent to the meeting at 
Vienna, and the interdict of Napoleon ; the slaves annually 
taken from the coast of Africa, were computed at 60,000. 
In 1S17 the coast was crowded with slave-ships, and the trade 
prevailed to such an extent, as to supersede and render abor- 
tive all attempts at ordinary commerce. According to the 
report of a Committee of Congress, made in the year 1821, 
the annual average number of slaves withdrawn from Wes- 
tern Africa should be estimated from 50,000 to S0,000. The 
importations into Rio de Janeiro, between the years 1820 
and 1829, continued annually to increase from 15,000, to 
upwards of 43,000. This sickening picture might be height- 
ened by the most revolting details, and presented with those 
additional horrors, which a description of the Middle Pas- 
sage would bestow. But it is enough. It shows that the 
attempts to terminate the most diabolical traffic which ever 
afflicted and disgraced humanity — the edicts of states, the 
treaties of confederate powers — each uniting in the denuncia- 
tion of it as piracy, and the punishment of it by death — 
have all been inoperative and powerless. If these be inade- 
quate, it may be deridingly asked, can the plan of Coloniza- 
tion succeed ? Does it exhibit claims to attention, of which 
such imposing endeavours are deprived ? Let us from naked 
flirts coolly consider the present results, and deduce the cer- 
tain tendencies of the scheme, and we shall at least compre- 
hend tbe mode by which it is proposed to accomplish a pur- 
pose so good and stupendous. 

Cape Messurado, the very Bpot selected for the residence 
of the first colonists, and tbe site of the flourishing town of 
Monrovia, was a place for the purchase and embarkation of 
slaves. B( fore the commencement of the colony, from -1000 



So 

to 5000 wretched victims of foreign cupidity, were annually 
exported from the harbour. According to Ashmun, in the 
year 1823, between this place and Cape Mount, a distance of 
fifty miles, now constituting perhaps the most thickly inha- 
bited portion of the settlement, at least 2000 persons were 
shipped for the hopelessness of exile and slavery in a foreign 
land. In 1S25, the same lamented writer declares, that from 
Cape Mount to Trade Town, a distance of one hundred and fifty 
miles, and embracing the whole region formerly infested, no 
slaver dared attempt the guilty traffic. The sl&yefactories are 
now entirely broken up. The Chiefs of the country adja- 
cent to Grand Bassa, which is within the line of coast between 
Cape Mount and Trade Town, stipulated in the year 1829, 
to cease from the slave trade, and to suppress it within their 
territorial limits. The recaptured Africans who belong to 
the colony, are among the living trophies of its victories. 
The great numbers which have been recaptured at Sierra 
Leone, and the advantage of these convenient stations on the 
coast, form powerful incitements to further activity and bra- 
very, on the part of naval commanders. In addition to 
these evidences of an influence exerted by the colony upon 
the African slave-trade, might be adduced the increasing com- 
merce of the colonists with the interior tribes; the progres- 
sive improvement of these by means of their intercourse 
with the settlers; and the growing sentiment of aversion 
towards the traffic among those tribes, which were formerly 
distinguished for ferocity and barbarism. The concurring 
opinions of respectable visitors, and the agents of the Parent 
Society, represent facts, of this nature, too strongly and 
cogently, even to be resisted or seriously impunged. Such 
are the prospects, and such have been the effects of this sim- 
ple enterprise, in the destruction of a trade upon which states- 
men and philanthropists, from a remote period in the annals 
of Christian Europe, have expended their united energies 
with so little success. 

Inseparably connected with the destruction of the slave- 
trade, or greatly dependant upon it, is the impression to be 
made upon the mind of Africa. Oppressed with the unbro- 



ken sleep of ages, she may not be at once awakened from 
her stupor — amused with her dreams of ignorance and super- 
stition, she may reluctantly exchange her delusion, for the 
broad effulgence of life, the great purposes, the unimagined 
realities of being. The reign of darkness and night may for 
a time be permitted in the vicinity of light and day. 

" Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, 
That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
When living light should kiss it?" 

But the genius which has given immortality to ancient Egypt 
— which nurtured young science in her cradle — which sent 
her forth to Greece, and finally to Europe — may break through 
the clouds and dissipate the mists which have so long over- 
shadowed and obscured it. With the return of her sons from 
exile, blest with the glimmering rays of that light which first 
broke forth and dawned in their own land, she will pursue 
those steps which led to former ascendency, she will reassert 
her former dominion, crowned with new conquests, and more 
dazzling glory. 

"States fall, arts fade, but Nature doth not die." 

We may look forward to a period when the hand of labour 
will hsscn the vast ocean of her forests; when extended com- 
merce in procuring wealth, will bring its concomitant conve- 
niences; and when a luxurious taste will spread about and 
around her the refinements of elegance. We may expect 
a time when the obelisk will mark the spot which has 
been known for centuries as the residence of fierce and 
untamed barbarity; and when the institutions of liberty and 
happiness which we now enjoy, the greatest and the purest 
which mankind ever saw, shall be those of a country, the 
clanking oi whose chains, ami the loudness of whose laments 
have penetrated to the remotest corners of the earth. We 
may anticipate the coming of that glorious day, when the 

objectless idolatry and blind superstitions of paganism shall 



37 

be supplanted over the land by the sublime spirit, and pure 
precepts of Christianity. It is in these connexions, that the 
colonization of Africa presents to the mind the most cheer- 
ing and ennobling contemplations. It proposes not only to 
elevate humanity in the scale of freedom, happiness, and vir- 
tue, but it promises to enlarge the limits of the scientific 
world, and to extend the wide boundaries of Christendom. 

Humble as is the present condition of the Colony of Libe- 
ria, it is big with its ultimate destination. Its effects are not 
seen alone in the quickened impulses and more generous 
aspirations of its inhabitants. The chiefs and kings of the 
neighbouring country seek the protection and friendship of 
an ally whose motives they cannot distrust, and whose ability 
they cannot question. They see the fruits of superior intel- 
ligence and a better religion, in the plenty, comfort and 
peace of the settlers. Constant intercourse must beget an 
improved taste, and the sense of inferiority must transfuse an 
ambition to remove the cause. That impulsion which Eu- 
rope received in the middle ages, and which led to the melio- 
ration of her own savage manners, arose from her relations 
with Asia, by means of her pilgrims to the Holy Land. The 
contemplation of a superior society, and of those refinements 
engendered by the arts, introduced new ideas of order — com- 
parisons were instituted — emulation was excited — manners 
grew less fierce and unrestrained. The proximity of higher 
cultivation, must, by inevitable transmission, produce the 
most favourable effects. Look at the present condition of 
our western country. Originally settled by a race of men, 
but one remove from the native savage, it presented the 
desolation of a moral and mental waste. As the rolling tide 
of emigration approached, carrying with it elements of a 
superior order, the waste was nourished as if by the neigh- 
bouring breeze; it was cultivated, and became a garden. 
Look through the history of man from the earliest age of 
which tradition speaks — trace the causes of his advance from 
wildness to refinement — and they will be found to be the 
collisions of commerce, or the influences of colonial settle- 
ment. History, however, has taught us the lesson, that when 



38 

colonies are prompted by the love of conquest or plunder, or 
when nature has interposed impassible barriers to a free com- 
munion, that perpetual war, or servitude, or massacre, is the 
dire conclusion. Memorable instances of each occur; but 
it may suffice to refer to that single case which presents a 
striking illustration. The colonization of America has been 
the means of destroying, not civilizing the ancient inhabi- 
tants. The thirst of wealth, of which the presence of these 
unfortunate beings retarded the gratification, or those physi- 
cal differences which nature herself had implanted, as if 
forever to distinguish between the invaders and the invaded, 
formed sufficient impediments to social union. Who can 
doubt that such would be the consequence to Africa of 
permanent communities, formed within her borders by 
the inhabitants of Europe ? Who can doubt that a mere 
inversion of the existing relation between Africa and Ame- 
rica, would be thence produced? Who can doubt that re- 
maining perpetually distinct, except in anomalous cases, 
supremacy on the one side, and subserviency on the other, 
or constant and bloody conflict, would be the hapless result? 
But experience has shown that the union of the American 
negro with the native African, is harmonious and productive 
of mutual advantage. So far has this union advanced, that 
intermarriages have already occurred between the female 
emigrants and the re-captured natives. This must introduce 
greater alacrity, on the part of the natives, to adopt the cus- 
toms and habits of the emigrants ; — a closer reciprocity of 
interest, a constant interchange of kindly offices. It is by 
leagui sfl of alliance, both political and domestic, that there 
must spring up a kindred sympathy, an identity of feeling, 
which will unite the two people and render them inseparable. 
Each emigrant may, therefore, Dc more than a missionary. 
He may be as a fertilizing stream in an arid country, dis- 
pensing greenness and beauty along its sterile banks. Let 
these streams multiply from ten thousand sources; let them be 
fed by generous tributaries from America and Europe ; and 
like another, but greater and richer Nile, in their concen- 
ted mass, the va*i and mighty sheet overflowing the 



39 

continent, will convert its hideous and lifeless deserts into a 
smiling scene of animation and verdure. A great moral 
oasis will take the place of diffusive barrenness, in tracts 
known only as the haunts of prowling animals, and 

" Of savage men more murd'rous still than they." 

It is such aims and purposes which animate the friends of 
Colonization to press forward, in despite of the accumulated 
impediments which oppose their advance. Unfounded pre- 
judices are raised, which must, by generating a spirit adverse 
to the coloured man on the one hand, and arraying the 
North against the South on the other, bring about incalcula- 
ble evils.* As the country should be guarded from the 
approach of an inimical army, so it should be warned against 
the insidious attempts of foreign stratagem to undermine its 
allegiance. What so plausible and insinuating as the deceit- 
ful guise of Christian benevolence? What so likely to sum- 
mon to its aid the religious sensibilities of a foreign country, 
and the conscientious and unsuspecting of ours? When we 
find an official functionary of Sierra Leone publishing a 
report intended to affect the American Colony at Liberia ; 
when we find Englishmen denouncing as absurd a project 



* Mrs. Childs cautions us against the adoption of Colonization principles on 
the score of their unpopularity. The unfounded reports industriously circulated 
against the scheme, have excited much prejudice against it in the minds of 
many worthy persons belonging to our free black population. This, too, may 
be said, that preaching at the North against Southern slavery can be easily 
done, as it costs nothing but the writing and publication of the sermons. Colo- 
nization, on the other hand, requires constunt/feewman/ sacrifices to convey to, 
and maintain the objects of its care in Liberia. It is for this reason not so 
cheap a philanthropy as some others. As it requires money in its sup- 
port, the Southern states may naturally believe, that Northern people would 
not engage in it without pure and disinterested motives, either of patriotism 
or benevolence. Touching the argument of James G. Birncy, derived 
from the successive dissolution of several Colonization Societies in the South 
west, that the plan contains no permanent animating principle, I may refer 
to the Abolition Society of Maryland, which was dissolved in the year 1798, 
having existed only seven years. The Protection Society of that state, formed 
for similar purposes, by Elisha Tyson, some years after, met with a similar 
fate. The same may be said of most of the benevolent projects of the age. 



10 

which they themselves originated and still continue to pa- 
tronise; when we find our glorious Constitution the object of 
absurd, bul censorious and ruthless attack; when we find two 
British agents in the Eastern and Northern country railing at 
institutions over which their auditors have neither jurisdic- 
tion nor control; can we doubt of the existence of a well 
defined object, a settled and systematic design? It seems 
manifest, that the Anti-slavery Societies, from their princi- 
ples, connexions and acts, are of foreign parentage — that 
their formation was dictated by English party politicians, 
with the view, by making a direct assault upon the constitu- 
tional union of the United States, to compass their objects at 
home. 

It is not necessary to deduce the history of our intercourse 
from the earliest times, with the great people from whom 
we are descended, to perceive in the movements of one of 
her political parties, a constant distrust, an unvarying watch- 
fulness of her offspring. 13ut all nations now attest the rapid 
approximation of what has long been foreseen and antici- 
pated, that this republic united, would rival and at length 
supplant England, in her maritime and manufacturing ascen- 
dency. No panting after superior greatness could outrun the 
certain but quick advances of her youthful and more vigor- 
ous competitor. That which she could not obtain by the 
direct agency of energetic exertion, she might realize by the 
indirection of diplomatic subtlety. If the glory of that rising 
country could be prevented by distraction of councils — divi- 
sion among its members — separation of its union, — all the 
bright hopes of its youthful promise, all the dread fears of its 
opi niii- career, would, in a moment, be dissipated and dis- 
pelled. The cloven foot of this policy was discovered soon 
after the commencement of our government. It has been equal- 
U perceptible in the controversies growing out of the tariff.* 



tided much detriment !■> tin ir manufacturing interests 

We all remember the clamour of a party in 

I | them. Om iglishman greatly contributed by their 

u ni i m tin |» ople of t t these laws, and tlms 

mi i of the famous nuUi fication doctrines. It whs one 



41 

But patriotic ardour has defeated it all. The delicate ques- 
tion of negro emancipation, not springing from temporary- 
causes, nor likely to subside with temporary interests, held 
out its alluring but deceptive promises. 

It would be well for reflecting Americans to examine the 
causes of that popular tumultuary eruption which led to the 
sudden formation of societies in dereliction of the ancient and 
recognised principles of gradual emancipation — principles 
announced in the Charters of our Abolition Societies, and in 
accordance with the uniform tenor of our abolition acts.* 



of these writers who dared to calculate the value of the union to South Carolina. 
— It should not be omitted, however, that other manufacturing- nations abroad 
are not less jealous of the progress of American industry. It is said, and there 
is sufficient reason to believe, that in the year 1832, when a Bill was before 
Congress " for promoting the growth and manufacture of Silk," which had 
heen reported and strongly recommended by the Committee on Agriculture, 
and which appeared to have the assent of a majority of the House of Represen- 
tatives, the minister of France openly declared himself opposed to the bill, and 
it is probable, considering the great interests then and now in suspense between 
the two nations, that his opposition did not a little contribute to its rejection, af- 
ter it had passed in committee of the whole. 

* The charter of " The Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition 
of Slavery," &c. enacted into a law on the 8th of December, 1789, has these 
words for its first section : " Whereas a voluntary Society has for some time 
subsisted in this State, by the name and title of ' The Pennsylvania Society for 
promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the relief of free negroes unlawfully 
held in bondage,' which has evidently co-operated with the views of the legisla- 
ture, expressed in the act of the General Assembly of this Commonwealth, 
passed the first day of March, in the year of our Lord 1780, entitled ' An act 
for the GRADUAL abolition of slavery, , and a supplement thereto, passed the 
29th day of March, in the year of our Lord 1788." It thus appears by the 
Charter of this Society — the fundamental law of the body corporate, without 
which it could not have a legal existence — that its views were confined to 
gradual abolition. — The Biennial Conventions of the various Abolition Socie- 
ties in the Union have repeatedly sanctioned the principle of gradual emancipa- 
tion. The Convention which met at Washington, Dec. 8, 1829, express their 
belief that abolition " can only be obtained by very gradual means,' 1 '' that laws 
fixing a future period for the freedom of slaves had met the approbation of form- 
er Conventions; that the idea of immediate freedom had encountered universal 
reprobation ; and that "gradual abolition is the only mode which at present ap- 
pears likely to receive the public sanction." See minutes of the 2lst Biennial 
American Convention, pp. 27, 8, 9. — All of our abolition acts proceed upon the 
principle of gradual emancipation. Pennsylvania set the example in 1780. 
Connecticut followed in 1784. Rhode Island a little later the same year. New 
6 



L2 

It would he well for Americans to pause before they adopt, 
at the suggestion of foreigners, a philanthropy which incites 
to turbulent Invective and acrimonious clamour, against an 
honest and well intended benevolence. They should examine 

York in 1799, and New J . in L804. These acts all adopt the principle of 
gradual and prospective abolition. — Theother non-slave-holding states in which 
legal Blavery has been adjudged to be incompatible with their Constitu- 
tions, have always bad very lew or no slaves. I allude to Maine, Massa- 
chusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, in the latter of which states only, in 
the year 1790, there were slaves. In that year, Vermont had seventeen 
slaves. Slavery was prohibited in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, before these 
communities were admitted to the rank of states, by the celebrated compact 
of 17^7, for the cession of the North Western Territory to the Federal Govern- 
ment. Whether t lie prohibition, which, in accordance with the. Compact and 
Ordinance of Congress, was afterwards introduced into the Constitutions of Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois, lias been expunged in cither, I have not been able to 
asccrt -iiii ; but certain it is, in Illinois, slaves are returned in 1810 and 1820, 
and according to the census of 1830, there exist 746 slaves in the state. Suffi- 
cient, however, has bi i n said, to show that gradual emancipation has been the 
characteristic feature of all the legislation in this country. This sentiment is 
not affected by the judicial construction which has been put upon the Constitu- 
tions of several o in which there were few or no slaves whatever, 
especially as judges are governed by their own abstract notions of what the 
law is. In Pennsylvania, the Constitution contains a similar article to that 
which, in Massachusetts, had been judicially pronounced inconsistent with 
Blavery, and yet the seven judges composing the then High Court of Errors 
and Appeals, solemnly determined, "that it was their unanimous opinion slavery 
was not inconsistent with any clause of the Constitution of Pennsylvania." 
With regard to the policy of the immediatt or gradual abolition of slavery at the 

i, that is not the question in this place; but I may be pardoned for quot- 
ing the concurring sentiment of Anthony Bi n< zi t and Dr. Fothergill, upon this 
subject, as the latter contributed so largely to the passage of our abolition act 
In a letter to ]>r. Fothergill, under date of 1th month 28th, \'','\ Ben 
writes.- "I am like-minded with thee, with resp< <t t" the danger and difficulty 
irltirk would attend a sin!, It n manumission of those negroes now in the Southern 
colonies, :<< well to themselves as to the whiles." Again: — The danger of 
immediate abolition in places where slaves constitute a large part of the 
population, South rn country, is distinctly admitted by Jonathan 

l in unwilling witness,) in an appendix to a sermon which he pro- 

d, iii 1791. lie had contended in his Bermon, upon 

i .1 principles, t< t the n< cessity of immediate abolition ; upon the doctrine 
l>. ing impugned us dangerous, he thus distinguish' a I" tween the Northern and 
Soul latcs. " / the Northern, in which slaves are so few, 

thi r< is not the bast foundation to imagine, thai they would combine or make 

inaUJ .eminent; or tb it they would attempt to murder 

thl ir ..... w it I, regard to the 

Southern states, the com is different The negroes in some parts of those 



43 

the long list of Colonization advocates, and see whether the 
first statesmen, jurists, and citizens of this country, are capa- 
ble of the detestable hypocrisy of aiming, through its means, 
at the perpetuation of servitude. They should coolly investi- 
gate the immediate bearings and remote results of Colonization. 
They should dispassionately compare the declarations of its 
enemies with the certainty of its present performances, and 
the probabilities of its future influence.* 

states area great majority of the whole, and therefore the evils objected would, 
in case of a general manumission at once, be more likely to take place." Since 
1773 and 1791, when Benezet and Edwards respectively wrote, the slaves at 
the south have greatly increased in number; and as a consequence, the "dan- 
ger and difficult}/,'''' as expressed by one, and ihc "evils of throat-cutting, thiev- 
ing, and plundering,'''' as apprehended by the other, from a sudden or general 
manumission at once, are by no means diminished at the present day. 

* The best reply that can be made to attacks upon the motives of coloniza- 
tionists, is to display the names of the officers and friends of the Colonization 
Societies — men of the first virtue and talents in the country — whom the country 
delights to honour, and whom nearly every party holds in a respect approach- 
ing to veneration. I may name the venerable Bishop White, John Marshall, 
and James Madison, who is President, of the parent Society. No one 
will suspect these men of favouring a scheme, which has for its object, 
or can have for its effect, the perpetuation of negro bondage! If any one 
is too idle to investigate for himself what the inevitable fruits of Colonization 
principles, judiciously administered, are, let him consult the pages of bright 
names which the annual reports furnish, as officers of the parent and state 
societies, and make himself acquainted with the many benevolent private 
individuals, who are silent, but devoted friends of the cause. Let him read the 
former testimonies of the Abolition Societies themselves to the principles and 
effects of Colonization. The Convention of these Societies which met at Wash- 
ington, in 1829, uses this language ; " A great recommendation of the measure 
(Colonization) arises from the fact, that it is the only efficient one which is likely 
to be speedily sanctioned by the people ; and is the only one by which volunta- 
ry emancipation, in most of the slave-holding States, can be effected." See 
Minutes, &c. p. 34. — Among the departed worthies, natives and foreigners, 
who gave to the principles upon which the Society proceed, their concurrence, 
I may record the late Thomas Jefferson, the celebrated Granville Sharp, the 
amiable Anthony Benezet, the truly philanthropic Elisha Tyson, the immortal 
William Wilberforce, and the lamented Hannah Kilham. 

It is well known that Thomas Jefferson formed a plan in 1777, to colonize 
the free blacks, but the circumstances of the country prevented the execution 
of the project. 

Granville Sharp, in 1787, colonized at Sierra Leone, 400 blacks, who were 
thrown upon their resources in the streets of London, in consequence of the 
decision of the English judiciary, in the case of the negro Somerset. 

Anthony Benezet proposes, in a letter addressed to Dr. Fothergill, in 1773, to 



44 

It we scan with a philosoj)hic eye the great subject of ef- 
facing the national stain of servitude, and of aiding the 
moral and social well being of the coloured man, we discern 
at once that the mists of passion and the prejudices of party, 



colonize the negroes of the United States, in " that large extent of country, 
from the west side of the Alleghany mountains to the Mississippi, on a breadth 
of lour or five hundred miles." 

Elisha Tyson was for many years opposed to the scheme of colonizing the 
free blacks in Africa. Towards the latter part of his life, his views entirely 
charged upon the subject. His biographer observes, " It was not until the 
closing period of Mr. Tyson's life, that this (the Colonization) Society enjoyed 
his confidence." * * * "Universal emancipation, connected with Coloni- 
zation, was the favourite theme of his declining age, and the last days of his 
existence were cheered by the hopes which seemed to beam on him through 
the dark vista of futurity, of the glorious realization of his wishes." Life of 
E. Tyson, p. Ill and 120. 

William Wilberforcc, it has been asserted, renounced Colonization just 
before he died. I can hardly think that recantation an act of free volition, 
which was made under circumstances, and at a time, when the energies of 
nature, it is said, were nearly extinct, and when a testamentary disposition 
could hardly have been binding. I prefer the conclusions of the mind, in a bet- 
ter condition of the body — we look for the mens sana in corpore sano. A letter 
of which the following is an extract, was written by William Wilberforce to 
Elliott Crcsson, when his faculties, mental and physical, were sound. He 
refers to the American Colonization Society — " You have gladdened my heart 
by convincing mc, that sanguine as had been my hopes if the happy effects to be 
produced by your Institution, all my anticipations are scant}' and cold compared 
with the reality. This may truly be deemed a pledge of the Divine favour, and 
believe mc, no Briton, I had almost said no American, can take a livelier inter- 
est than myself, in your true greatness and glory." &.c. &.c. Vide, Fifteenth 
Annual Report Am.Col.Soc.p. 15. 

Hannah William, who was a member of the Society of Friends in England, 
and well known for her great benevolence and ardent piety, visited Liberia in 
1832. Bhethu i (presses herself in a letter written while in the colony. "This 
colony altogether pres< nts quite a new scene of combined African and Ameri- 
can interest. I cannot but hope and trust, that it is the design of Infinite Good- 
a home in this land (or many who have been denied the full 
.! of privilege in Ihe land of their birth ; and that some, who are brought 
hi n but as a . belter and resource lor themselves, may, through the visitation of 
Heavenly Goodnei in their own minds, and the further leadings of Divine 
Love, become mini I i of the glad tidings of the Gospel, to many who are now 

living in darkness, and the shadow of death." 

I ' i . .!■ zeal in the cause led him, as agent, to make a protract- 

ed ■■ ind, without compensation, found many benevolent spirits, and 

warm advocati of Colonization in thut land. [Seo statement of the names of 



45 

are all that obstruct its happy termination. If the Abolition 
Societies, as they were constituted before the announcement 
of anti-slavery principles, would unostentatiously prosecute 
their benevolent labours of educating the free negroes, and 

contributors and the amount of his collections, in England, as published in the 
African Repository for April, 1834.] He was the means of forming there a 
society in aid of the enterprise, composed of men of the highest rank, of 
distinguished talents, and reputed piety. They consider the plan as admir- 
ably calculated to introduce Christianity and civilization among the natives of 
Africa, and to extirpate the slave-trade, " which," say they, "the naval efforts 
of Great Britain and other powers, have been unable to suppress." The follow- 
ing are the officers of The British African Colonization Society. They 
will be recognised as among the most illustrious characters in the Kingdom. 

Patron. — His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex. President. — The 
Right Honourable Lord Bexley. Vice Presidents. — His Grace the Duke of 
Bedford, His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin, the most Noble the Mar- 
quis of Westminster, the Rt. Hon. Sir George Murray, Bart. K. C. B., T. 
Richardson, Esq. (of Stamford Hill), Lord Advocate Jeffrey, H. Wilson 
Esq., Rev. Lord Arthur Hervey, John Ivatt Briscoe, Esq. M. P., James 
Douglas, Esq. (of Cavers), B. Hawes, Esq. M. P.. Sir George Ouseley. 
Treasurer. — J. Biddulph, Esq. Hon. Secretary. — Captain J.J. Chapman. 

In addition to these there are many private individuals in Great Britain and 
Ireland who have generously contributed considerable sums of money to this 
noble charity, and whose pens have been enlisted in the cause. Among these 
I give the following : 

Dr. Hodgkin, a distinguished and benevolent physician of London. He has 
published at his own expense three valuable pamphlets in defence of the Society 
and its colony. 

John Bevans, the Editor of the Herald of Peace — the author of the Vindica- 
tion of Liberia and other able articles. 

Rev. Henry Duncan, D.D. Dumfries, the founder of the first Savings Bank — 
a warm and zealous advocate of African Colonization. 

James Simpson, Esq. of Edinburg, has vindicated the cause in the Phrenolo- 
gical Journal with great ability. 

Rev. Edward Higginson, of Hull, the author of " Liberia philanthropically 
and economically considered." 

Thomas Greer Jacob, a Friend, of Belfast, in a series of letters exposed the 
sophistry and disingenuousness of the anti-colonizationists, and the duty of sup- 
porting the Society in its benevolent labours. Several distinguished Friends con- 
tributed largely to its funds; among them, R. D. Alexander, of Ipswich, raised for 
the Society £600 sterling. His friend, the immortal Thomas Clarkson, whose 
labours in the cause of African freedom have been greater than those of any man 
living, is strongly attached to the Society, and duly appreciates its important re- 
sults. " This venerable man," says the 15th Report of the American Colonization 
Society, " now sinking under a weight of years, and almost blind, listened to tho 
details of the Society's operations with an enthusiastic delight, such, as a 



46 

assisting those who arc illegally retained in bondage, 
the work of Colonization would go prosperously onward and 
the fabric of slavery would crumble into ruins. Having re- 
nounced their partial alliance with treasonable doctrines and 
transatlantic emissaries; having sacrificed upon the altar of 
patriotism and union the new tangled notion of immediate 
and total abolition ;* and pursuing those legitimate and 

friend remarked, he had -Dot manifested for twenty years; and in a letter to 
Mr. Cresson observes, 'for myself, I am free to say, that of all tilings that 
have been going on in our favour since 1787, when the abolition of the slave 
trade was seriously proposed, that which is goingon in the United States is 
the most important. It surpasses every thing that has yet occurred. No 
sooner had your colony been established on Cape Montserado, than there ap- 
peared a disposition among the owners of slaves to give them freedom volunta- 
rily and without compensation, and to allow them to be sent to the land of 
their fathers, so that you have many thousands redeemed, without any cost 
lor their redemption. To me this is truly astonishing. Can this have taken 
place without the intervention of the spirit of God V Report, pages 14, et seq. 

Dougla of I avers, contributed j£200 to its funds, and the eloquent appeals 
of Jeffrey, .Murray, Solicitor General Cockburn and Lord MonerietV will long be 
remembered by the brilliant assemblages drawn around them at Edinburg. 
Mrs. Miles Fletcher, so justly beloved by our countrymen who have visited the 
northern Athens, lias given to t he cause the aid of her powerful influence. 

Rev. Josiah Pratt has furnished valuable articles in the Missionary Herald 
throughout the whole period of the colonial history of Liberia. 

' The example of the effects produced in England by the denunciations of 
the press, and the exhibitions of popular feeling, against slavery, by leading to an 
actofParlia king slavery in Jamaica, has been thought tojustify sim- 

ilar attempts at agitation in the Northern sections ofthe I nited States. In Eng- 
land, this clamour was raised among a pi ople that had control over Slavery in 
Dglish Parliament had a righl to legislate upon the subject. But 
to he known or understood, that the legislatures of the non- 
< gress of the (nited Slates have nothing to do 
with tin- exist* nee of slavery at the South. They have no jurisdiction over the ter- 
ritory. Each state, with regard to its own internal concerns, is an independent 
., ami in relation to these concerns, it can no more be governed by 
on of the others or Congress, than by an act ofthe British Parliament 
or a hull of ' i Rome. 1 1' Englishmen, \\ ho declaim at the North against 

Southern slavery, could be taught that tin y are prt aching to impoti al hearers, 
they might save themselves much unneci ssary trouble and the cause much 
But enough is said in a former note to show, that the doctrine of 
individuals, and of the Anti-slavery Societies, with respeel to immediate 
abolitio al unquestioned philanthropists. 

I :• hing iIm fearful experiment which has been made in Jamaica, it is 

-. ly h"|>ed that the event will justify the pr. dictions ofthe advocates of the 
ippoint tho confident expectations of those who were opposed 



47 

praiseworthy objects which had more recently called forth 
their energies ; they might prepare their subjects for more 
extensive liberty and a larger sphere of action in another 
hemisphere. Humanity and religion will rejoice at the 
spectacle of two societies, a little variant at one stage of their 
history, uniting and co-operating in the design of extirpating 
what each must regard as the greatest of social and political 



to it. But we already find that the apprentices, so called, do not perform half 
their accustomed labours ; that the crops will not be quarter the usual size ; and 
that much insubordination, disturbance and panic have been excited. These 
consequences have resulted notwithstanding' the guard of a strict, vigilant and 
exacting police, and the lerrorsof a formidable naval force. It has, indeed, been 
argued that nothing worse can happen, and tiiat tilings will grow better when 
the novelty of freedom shall have worn away. However desirable this be, is such 
a presumption justified by existing facts? The apprentices have yet only 
heard the sound of abolition, without experiencing its enjoyments. Each set 
are confined to their appropriate estate as formerly, and though the disposition 
may be imparted, the power to do mischief, has been prudent lv withheld. Union, 
concert, in a word, the ability to conspire, are wanting. But, will not the case 
he changed, when these apprenticeships shall have expired ? The slaves 
must then be free and unshackled, enjoying the influence, as well as hearing the 
name of liberty. They will be their own masters, (and happy will it be, if 
they do not prove the masters of all around them,) having the right of locomo- 
tion, of which they are now deprived. Can it be doubted, that if they want 
only this power at present, for the commission of fell barbarities, the inclina- 
tion will not be wanting a few years hence? 

In England, certain benevolent spirits seem to be so well satisfied that the 
work of freedom is accomplished at home, that they have formed a 'British and 
Foreign Society for the universal abolition of negro slavery,' witli a view to aid 
the cause of emancipation throughout the world. No exception can be taken 
to the most expansive philanthrophy, provided it does not interfere with the ex- 
ercise of that charity which begins at home. In the case before us, it is appre- 
hended, much remains for enlightened benevolence to undertake. What has 
the Act of Parliament done? Has it effected that mental preparation which is 
necessary for the ultimate freedom of these apprentices ? Has it placed the negro 
child at school, or given to him a spelling book or Bible ? If the act has not 
done this, should not a society, whose sympathies — bounded only by the murines 
of this terraqueous globe — are felt across the Atlantic iu the various firms of 
frothy missives and mad-cap missionaries, attend to so vital a concern ? The dis- 
enthralling of the soul is quite as important as that of the body, ahd must neces- 
sarily precede it. Ireland is thought by some to be in an enslaved condition. 
What would Britain say to a society formed in this country fur the establish- 
ment of universal liberty, and which, in furtherance of that design, should send 
out emissaries for the purpose of aiding that mild and amiaHc abolitionist, Dan- 
iel O'Connell, in his patriotic efforts at ' agitation' there ? 



48 

. \ lis. With such concert of cflbrt we may expect to realize 
those dazzling visions of the future, which open upon the 
imagination. We may promise ourselves the ability to explore 
ami know that immense and interesting region whichso many 
travellers have attempted in vain to survey and examine. 
W e may picture to ourselves, though in distant perspective, 
the certain but complete civilization of a barbarous country; 
its majestic forests converted into beautiful and luxuriant 
fields; its mighty rivers rendered the great tributaries of 
wealth, and the highways of enterprise. We may indulge 
the hope that the Nile and the Niger may bear upon their 
swelling waters the power conferred upon navigation by the 
genius of Fulton, and that those other arts of America which 
minister to convenience and luxury here, may, in Africa, 
find a genial and a welcome home. We may hope that the 
institutions of America, save those which legalize oppression, 
may bo transplanted into the African soil, there to flourish, 
blossom, and fructify. With such foundations we may expect 
the elegancies of literature to animate a people whom antiquity 
knew as illustrious — that English literature, the common in- 
heritance of Britons and Americans, may be studied, ad- 
mired and imitated. For of Africa we may emphatically 
say, 

" unto us she hath a spell beyond 

Her name in story, and her long array 
Of mighty shadows — " 

We may picture her superstitions dissipated by the sun 
of science, and her idolatry converted into worship by 
the inspired eloquence of her Origens, Tertullians, Cy- 
prians, and Augustines.* It. is thus we shall witness the 
realization of prophetic truth, that 'Ethiopia shall soon 
-in tch forth her hands unto God;' it is thus we shall witness 
the Christian temple rearing it> heaven-directed spire in the 
hearl of Africa, and illuminating with its divine effulgence 
motesl parts of a dreary and benighted land. 

• l ianitj in tin ir day, wen- Africans. In the 

fifth cent taled that tin re w< re four hundred Catholic Bishops in 

A I'nm. 



COLONIZATION HYMNS. 

The following Hymns were written on the sailing of the Ninus, with one hun 
dred and twenty-six enfranchised Slaves, to found the new Colony at Bassa 
Cove, October 24th, 1834, — the 152d Anniversary of Penn's landing in the 
Delaware. 



BY MRS. SIGOURNEY. 

A 9hip came o'er the ocean 

When this Western World was young, 
And the forest's solemn shadow 

O'er hill and valley hung, — 
It came ;— o'er trackless billow, 

The Man of Peace to bear, 
And the savage chieftain eyed him 

Like lion in his lair. 
But 'neath the o'erarehing Elm-tree 

An oathless truce was made, 
And the ambush wild no more sprang 

From out the leafy glade, 
Nor the dread war-whoop startled 

Lone midnight's slumbering band, 
For red men took the law of love, 

As from a brother's hand ; 
And they blessed him while he founded 

This City of our love, 
Where now we strike the lyre of praise, 

To Him who rules above. 

A ship its sail is spreading, 

For that far tropic clime, 
Where, nurs'd by fiery sun-beams, 

The palm-tree towers sublime. 
It seeks that trampled nation, 

To every ill a prey, 
Whom none have turn'd aside to heal, 

When crush 'd in dust she lay, — 
It seeks that mourning mother, 

Whose exil'd children sigh, 
In many a stranger region, 

'Neath many a foreign sky,— 
It brings them, fraught with blessings, 

Back to her bleeding breast, 
Heaven's peace, and Christ's salvation, 

And Freedom's holy rest. 
Haste, haste, on snowy pinion, 

Thou messenger of love, 
For those who sow the seed thou bear'st 

Shall reap the fruit above. 



BY REV. G. W. BETHUNE. 

Home for the exiled nation ! 

Rest for the weary Slave ! 
For Africa, Salvation ! 

Hope points across the wave, 
Where Afric's golden river 

Meets with the pearly seas, 
And graceful palm-trees quiver 

To morn and evening breeze. 

The God of love has spoken ; 

" There shall the refuge be, 
The captive's chain is broken, 

The long oppressed are free." 
The ransomed one returneth 

With gladness to her shore, 
And Ethiopia mourneth 

Her ravished sons no more. 

The white man's pride no longer 

Shall scorn the sable brow, 
Nor weaker, to the stronger, 

In hopeless bondage bow. 
Erect in conscious freedom 

The Negro lifts his head— 
And God's own hand shall lead him 

In glory's path to tread. 

The star of hope is lighted, 

On Messurado's steep, 
And soon, a land benighted 

Shall wake from error's sleep— 
The sun of God, arising 

With beams of joy divine, 
Each wandering tribe surprising, 

Shall o'er her deserts shine. 



jy The Executive Committee of the Young Men's Colonization Society of 
Pennsylvania, deeply sensible of the importance of despatching a second expe- 
dition to Bassa Cove, before the close of the dry season, not only to secure the 
liberty of the highly interesting company of emigrants at Savannah and 
Augusta, now imploring our assistance, but to strengthen the little band sent 
out last month, earnestly invite the co-operation of their fellow citizens. 

Where pecuniary aid is inconvenient, contributions in provisions, clothing, 
implements of husbandry, tools, spinning wheels, a lathe, nails, iron, eastings, 
cutler)', seeds, books, stationery, and the various articles of merchandize 
necessary for exchanging with the natives for food and labour, will be grate- 
fully received by A. <fc G. Ralston, No. 4 South Front street, and donations 
in cash by the Treasurer, Lloyd Mifflin, 252 Spruce street, or by the sub- 
scriber, 30 Sansom street. 

On behalf of the Committee. 

ELLIOTT CRESSON, Chairman. 



FORM OF BEQUEST. 



I give and bequeath to A., his heirs, executors, and administrators in trust to 
pay over (the profits or principal, as the case may be,) to the Treasurer for the 
time being, of a Society called and known by the name of ' The You7ig Men's 
Colonization Society of Pennsylvania,'' to be applied'to the objects of Colonizing 
free blacks on the Western Coast of Africa, and elevating their morals and in- 



AN ACCOUNT, &c. 

An account of the Proceedings of the Young Men's Coloni- 
zation Society of Pennsylvania, in connexion with their 
First Expedition of Coloured emigrants to Liberia, to 
found a Neiv Colony at Bassa Cove. 

The Young Men's Colonization Society op Pennsyl- 
vania, was organized in the month of April last, hy the 
adoption of a Constitution and the election of a Board of 
Managers. To this measure its members were determined 
by the following considerations : 1. A belief that a direct ap- 
peal, should be made to the benevolence and Christian zeal 
of the wealthy and populous capital of Pennsylvania, and 
of the State at large, in favour of the establishment of 
a new colony on the coast of Africa: 2. The necessity 
of prompt measures being taken to carry into effect, the 
testamentary bequest of doctor Aylett Hawes of Virginia, 
by which he manumitted more than one hundred slaves 
on condition of their being sent to Liberia. Acting as auxilia- 
ry to the parent Board at Washington, this Society proposes 
to carry into practice in the new colony, certain principles of 
political economy, which will meet with the approbation of 
all unprejudiced minds. This will be done by fostering with 
more care than hitherto, the agricultural interest ; checking 
the deteriorating influence of petty and itinerant traffickers ; 
maintaining the virtue of sobriety, the nurse and parent of so 
many other virtues, by obtaining from the colonists a pledge 
of abstinence from the use of ardent spirits ; and by with- 
holding all the common temptations and means for carrying 
on war, or for engaging in any aggressive steps with the na- 
tive population of Africa. 

The announcement of these views and intentions, at seve- 
ral successive public meetings, at the same time that the 
cause of colonization in general was ably advocated, made a 
highly favourable impression on the community. The re- 
sults were shown in the addition of several hundred mem- 
bers to the Society, and the collection of several thousand dol- 
lars towards carrying its contemplated measures into effect. 

The better to ascertain the precise conditions on which free- 
dom was granted by Dr. Hawes to his slaves, and especially 
how far the laws of the state of Virginia would apply to them 
in case of any delay in sending them to Africa, a commission, 



52 

consisting of Messrs. Cresson and Naylor, was despatched 
for this purpose by the Board of Managers. These 
gentlemen were also authorised to confer, on their way 
to Virginia, with the Board of the American Coloniza- 
tion Society at Washington ; and, as the latter was unable, for 
want of funds, to carry into effect the bequest of Dr. Haw r es, 
to obtain from them due powers to act in the matter. 

In conformity with their instructions, (by resolutions of 
the Board of Managers,) the commission proceeded to Vir- 
ginia, and visited, in the first place, the county town of Rap- 
pahanock, where they procured from the records, a copy of 
the will of Dr. Hawes. Thence they went to the residence 
of one of the special executors, Howard F. Thornton, Esq. 
on whose plantation were, at the time, resident seventy- 
eight of the future emigrants. Of these, forty were males 
and thirty-eight were females, of various ages, from sixty 
down to two years of age. Many of the men are well versed 
in various handicraft employments, four of them being black- 
smiths, two carpenters, two shoemakers, two stone-masons, 
and one weaver. " Most of them are very intelligent ; some 
of them can read and write, and all of excellent characters. 
Domestic manufactures have been the constant employment 
of many of the females, and we are assured that they have 
arrived at great perfection in them ; besides, nearly one half 
of them are accomplished seamstresses. In addition to the 
slaves above mentioned, the husband of one of them, living 
in the neighbourhood, has been kindly liberated by his mas- 
ter, the Rev. Francis Thornton, to accompany his family 
to Liberia. He is a carpenter of most excellent character, 
hardy and hale, and one of the best workmen in the place; 
he has a large quantity of tools, and will be a valuable acqui- 
sition to the Colony. His master is a warm and devoted 
colonizationist, and to him we are indebted for much valuable 
information relative to our mission, as we'll as for many other 
favours kindly rendered us." — Report of the Commission. 

The thirty-one coloured persons under the care of Mr. 
Hawes, forming the other division of the slaves manumitted 
by Dr. Hawes, were represented to the commission as all 
willing and desirous of going to Liberia. The greater part 
of the whole number arc members of the Baptist Church. 
They are industrious and temperate, have always been kindly 
and tenderly taken care of, and abundantly supplied with 

every thing thai could make them comfortable. "We at- 
tended," says the commission, "at one of their religious 



53 

meetings, and were greatly gratified by their exercises. Wc 
submitted to them our project of making them a separate 
establishment in Africa, and it met with their, their master's, 
and friends' entire approbation. We conversed with them 
upon their future prospects in Africa, explained to them the 
situation of the country, and informed them of its products, 
resources, and the capabilities of its soil, answered their in- 
quiries, and were equally gratified and surprised at their in- 
telligence. Upon the whole, wc think them eminently 
fitted for good colonists, possessing among themselves all the 
resources of a little community — we believe that they will 
ably perform their duty. Let us, therefore, be not remiss in 
the performance of ours ; and, under the favour of Provi- 
dence, the success of the experiment cannot long remain pro- 
blematical."* 

The next step in the discharge of their delegated trust was 
for the Commission to ascertain fully the sentiments and 
views of the Parent Board at Washington, respecting the 
conditions on which the Young Men's Colonization Society 
of Pennsylvania should charge itself with the embarkation 
and transportation to Africa of the liberated slaves of Dr. 
Hawes; and with the guardianship of these people when set- 
tled there. The final result was an acquiescence, in the re- 
solution of the Board at Washington by the Society in 
Pennsylvania. This resolution is as follows : 

"That the Young Men's Colonization Society of Pennsyl- 
vania be informed, that, as auxiliary to this [the American 
Colonization Society,] the slaves of the late Dr. Hawes will be 
transferred to them, to be sent to Liberia, and supported there 
by them, in a separate settlement or community under the su- 
perintendence of such agent and of such local laws or regula- 
tions, as may be adopted by the said Society, and approved of 
by the Board; but said community to be considered as a part of 
the Colony of Liberia, and subject to the general laws of the 
Colony in all respects, as the citizens now there ; and that so 
soon as said Society shall signify their acceptance of said 
conditions, the said slaves shall be formally transferred to 
them, together with the sum left for their transportation by 
the will of Dr. Hawes." 

In acceding to this resolution, the Pennsylvania Society 

* It ought, to quicken the zeal and henevolcnce of the friends of huma- 
nity, to be known, that during the short career of this Society, many oners of 
large bodies of slaves have been made to it from several Southern states — the 
owners generously offering their gratuitous emancipation, so soon as we could 
extend to them the boon of Colonization. 



51 

expressly stipulated for the right of making such modifica- 
tions and reforms of existing laws as to enable it, in the new 
Colony, to give more encouragement to agriculture, to pro- 
hibit the importation, manufacture, and sale of ardent spirits, 
and to adopt an improved plan for supplying the public 
stores, and for the issue, by gift or sale, of their contents, to 
the coloured and native inhabitants. These reservations have 
been admitted by the parent Board. It was also understood 
by the two Boards, (at Washington and Philadelphia,) that 
in case the preparations at Bassa Cove, for the reception of 
the new emigrants sent out by the Pennsylvania Society, 
should not be sufficiently matured to allow of their being 
landed at once, a temporary asylum is to be furnished for 
them in some of the present settlements in Liberia. 

The preliminaries having been satisfactorily adjusted, 
prompt and vigorous measures were taken by the Executive 
Committee of the Board of Managers of the Young Men's 
Colonization Society, to make the requisite purchases of 
stores, utensils, clothing, and other supplies, for the future 
colonists ; and to charter a vessel for the transportation of 
both persons and goods. Success attended their efforts; and 
on the 24th of October last, the good ship Ninus set sail from 
Norfolk, Virginia, with one hundred and twenty-six coloured 
emigrants on board. Of these, were the manumitted slaves of 
Dr. 11 awes, one hundred and nine in number; the carpenter 
already mentioned, freed by the Rev. Francis Thornton ; a 
father of a family whose members were emigrants, and who 
was purchased a few days preceding; and a little girl, also 
I by purchase. In addition to these, was a small body of 
fourteen persons, who had been freed by Mrs. Page, the 
sister of Bishop Meade, and who were offered a passage, 
although destined for the old Colony. But for all the parti- 
culars connected with the embarkation of the emigrants, the 
reader is n ferred to the following report, by Elliott Cresson, 
Esq. on the part of a Committee deputed by the Board of 
Managers of tbe Young Men's Society, for the purpose. It 
will In- sera that even in this early stage of its labours, the 
Society is fully alive to the importance of education keeping 
pace with colonization. In the attainments of Mr. llankin- 
son, all the friends of the cause have abundant reason to in- 
dulge in sanguine hopes of success. 

h maj be well to mention, in this place, that the superin- 
denl of public schools, — the vice-agent, — and the physician, 
who i- a licentiate in Surgery, sailed in June last for the new 
Colony, from New Fork, in the Jupiter. Though young, Dr. 



55 

McDowell has seen much of the world in his profession, as a 
voyager and traveller; and he will, it is presumed, be on the 
spot ready to receive and give such counsel to the newly 
arrived emigrants, as will be required by a due regard for 
their health and comfort. 

The cost of the present expedition is about $S000, viz. 
$2500 for charter of ship, and $5500 for stores and appro- 
priate goods. 

By the terms of the will of Dr. Hawes, twenty dollars a 
head were allowed, and have been paid by his executors, 
towards defraying the expenses of the emigration of his libe- 
rated slaves. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 

The Committee appointed by the Young Men's Coloniza- 
tion Society of Pennsylvania, to superintend the sailing 
of their First Expedition, respectfully Report : 

That they lost no time in complying with the wishes of 
the Board, and at Fredericksburg, on the 19th inst, found 
that portion of the slaves (eighty-one in number,) which were 
from Dr. Hawes' late residence in Rappahannock county, 
already arrived. These people having become acquainted 
with one of the Committee last summer, expressed the most 
lively joy on recognizing a friend in whom they confided ; 
testifying their gratitude for the counsel then imparted, as 
having been instrumental in counteracting the efforts of indi- 
viduals interested in defeating the benevolent intentions of 
their late master, and thus securing them a boon, the very 
prospect of which filled them with gladness. It was a pleas- 
ing indication of their future habits, that most of them were 
found industriously employed in such labour as they could 
obtain for the purpose of adding to the slender means they 
possessed. To foster these valuable characteristics on the vo} r - 
age, we purchased a supply of leather to give employment to 
the shoemakers; and instructions were given to have as much 
of our stock of wollens and cottons made into garments as 
circumstances would warrant, our complement embracing 
shoemakers, taylors, and seamstresses, as well as carpenters, 
bricklayers, masons, farmers, blacksmiths, weavers, spinners, 
a dyer, cooper, waggon maker, and collier. 



56 

On theensuing day, theremaining thirty-one from Dr. Hawes' 
estate in Caroline county, Virginia, having arrived, arrange- 
ments were made I'm- proceeding to Norfolk in the steamboat 
Rappahannock, the following morning. There being some 
warm friends of the Colonization cause at Fredericksburg, your 
Committee took advantage of the interest excited, and at a 
meeting of their young men, a new Branch, auxiliary to 
the American Colonization Society was organized. In- 
deed, we could not but remark, that while the whole 
South was indignant at the late attempts in the East, our 
mission was greeted with a warm welcome by all the friends 
of the negro, embracing a very large portion of the good 
sense and good feeling of the community ; and we cannot hesi- 
tate to believe, that a steady perseverance in these benevolent 
efforts, will speedily pave the way for the moral elevation and 
eventual emancipation of the large body of slaves held in 
that great State. 

The 22d was ushered in by a bright morning, which per- 
mitted many of their kind friends to accompany this highly 
interesting groupof one hundred and twelve (including a parent 
who was brought a few days previously, that he might accom- 
pany a wife and seven children, — a little girl for whom three 
hundrcddollarswas paid, — anda very valuable mechanic gratu- 
itously emancipated by the Rev. Francis Thornton, in prefer- 
ence to selling him for one thousand dollars) — on board the 
boat which was chartered for the purpose. Many being high- 
ly esteemed members, and two of them ministers in the Bap- 
tist Church, they had been organized into a congregation, 
which was joined in the evening in their religious services, by 
the Rev. Mr. Hill, of New England, when several addresses 
were made and appropriate hymns sung. Early next morn- 
ing we reached Norfolk, and the Ninus having sailed from 
Philadelphia on the 1 1th, (Win. Bonn's one hundred and 
ninetieth birth day,) was fortunately descried on entering the 
harbour; and. by running alongside, in a few minutes our peo- 
ple and their baggage were safely deposited on her decks. 

It was gratifying to learn from John M'Phail Esq. so long 
known as the faithful disinterested friend of the Society, that 
on an examination of our supplies, nothing was left for him 
to provide, and that it was the most complete outfit that had 
ever proceeded to Africa. The emigrants, on finding how 
.ini|.l\ everj want had been anticipated, and the commodious 
accommodations of the ship, — her outfit having cost nearly 
eight thousand dollars, two thousand two hundred dollars of 



57 

which was bequeathed by the will of Dr. Hawes, renewed 
their grateful acknowledgments, and seemed to forget the 
pain of separation in the prospect of comfort and indepen- 
dence in the land of their forefathers; but above all, in the 
providential opening thus presented for meliorating the con- 
dition of their heathen brethren. 

In addition to our own emigrants, fourteen entrusted to 
the parent Society by Mrs. Page, the sister of Bishop Meade, 
and intended for the old Colony, arrived, and were gratui- 
tously provided with passage and provisioning to Monrovia, 
by us. On the same evening, Edward Y. Hankinson and 
wife, arrived from New York with an ample stock of agri- 
cultural implements, and tools for his workshops, just in time 
to join the expedition. Of this invaluable couple, so highly 
qualified for the performance of the duties assigned them by 
the Ladies Association of Philadelphia, your committee feel 
almost at a loss to speak in adequate terms; his versatile 
mechanical genius, and amiable and cheerful disposition, 
mingled with an intense love for long oppressed Africa, 
manifested by both, eminently qualifying them for their ardu- 
ous and responsible station. The climate of Africa, having 
been prescribed as the last resort in the case of Stephen 
Barnes, late a student in the Theological Seminary of Vir- 
ginia, a passage in the Ninus was proffered, and gratefully 
accepted. Should he survive, we anticipate much from his 
devoted Missionary spirit, and his mechanical abilities. In 
the more probable event of his death, candour will surely not 
charge it to his removal from a more salubrious atmosphere: 
a result deemed inevitable by his physicians, had he staid a 
few weeks longer in his native clime, so strongly marked 
were his consumptive symptoms. 

Happily the return of that day, so conspicuous in the 
annals of Pennsylvania, as the anniversary of her foundation, 
and the landing of our pilgrim fathers — the 24th day of 
October, was in all its autumnal brightness; and at ten 
o'clock, the whole body of emigrants was assembled on the 
deck of the Ninus, in company with a number of their reli- 
gious friends. A feeling of solemnity pervaded the assem- 
blage, and the Throne of Grace was addressed by the Rev. 
Mr. Howell, the Baptist minister of Norfolk — the Rev. Mr. 
Boyden, of the Episcopal Church, then made a concise and 
appropriate address ; after which, Bishop Heber's Mis- 
sionary Hymn was sung with touching effect, followed by 
the Rev. P. F. Phelps, of the Presbyterian Church of New 
8 



58 

fork, invoking the Divine blessing on this beneficent enter- 
prise. The service was concluded with a very feeling 
ression of thanks, on the part of the Colonists, by Aaron 
P. Davis, one of their ministers. The ship having obtained 
her clearance, dropped down into the stream at noon, and 
went to sea early on the morning of the 26th, with a line 
leading breeze. Late on the preceding evening, we took our 
final leave of our protegees ; and, as the charge has so fre- 
quently been brought against the Society, that the objects of 
its bounty arc coerced away, we took much pains to 
ascertain their real sentiments. But even on the eve of 
departure, no lingering regret seemed to oppress them. 
The}' acknowledged with great apparent sincerity, their deep 
sense of the kindness extended towards them last summer, 
in our sending down a committee, whose frank exposition of 
the disadvantages, as well as advantages of their new mode of 
life, had relieved their minds from the fears artfully excited 
by the enemies of Colonization ; and on reminding them of 
the threats that we intended to sell them to the slavers, the 
loud laugh of derision, at once evinced their contempt lor 
the charge, and their confidence in our friendship and good 
faith. 

Your Committee cannot close this report without advert- 
ing with gratitude to the signal success which has hitherto 
been graciously permitted to attend every step of the Society, 
mingled with bumble trust that our institution, based on the 
principles of benevolence and religion, will continue to enjoy 
the Divine blessing. Among these, the selection of emi- 
grants, imbued with feelings of Christian love toward the 
benighted children of Africa, and the rigid exclusion of 
anient spirits, stand prominently forth. The testimonial ap- 
pended to this report, (see Appendix B,) respecting Isaac 
Walker, one of the one hundred and twenty-six slaves whose 
freedom lias been secured by this first effort of the Young 
Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, presents, we 
have every reason to believe, a fair specimen of the character 
of a large proportion of our colonists. Every adult most 
cheerfully gave the temperance pledge proposed to them; 
and, as Capt. Parsons, the respectable commander of the 
Ninus, 'Iocs nnt permit the use of spirits on board his ship, 
has proceeded on her voyage in strict accordance with 
the principles of our ('(institution. 

It appeared to inspire most of these interesting people 
with new confidence, and to excite a spirit of manly indc- 



59 

pendence, when the judicious principles, adopted by our 
Board for their benefit, were detailed to them. In that of 
confining tbe commerce of the Colony, at its first settle- 
ment, to the Colonial Factory, they foresaw the preservation 
of the natives from the rapacity of unprincipled traders, and 
winning them to a just appreciation of the advantages of 
civilized life; — a new impulse to their own agricultural and 
mechanical pursuits; — in its profits, a provision for meeting 
the public wants; — and hence the means of supplying them- 
selves, at a moderate price, out of the fruits of their own 
industry, instead of being a charge on our bounty. We have 
every reason to believe, that by thus implanting new and 
powerful motives to virtuous action, much will be done to 
conquer habits too frequently the concomitants of their former 
unfortunate position in society. 

In sending out this first expedition, the great principles 
upon which this Society is to act, should be kept distinctly 
in view: 

1. Entire temperance in every colonist: 

2. Total abstinence from trade in ardent spirits and arts 
of war : 

3. An immediate Christian influence and operation upon 
surrounding heathen: 

All designed to accomplish the second article of our con- 
stitution, — u to provide for civilizing and christianizing 
Africa, through the direct instrumentality of coloured emi- 
grants from the United States." 

And under the belief that this institution, if adequately 
supported, will confer upon the African race an inestimable 
blessing, and secure a salubrious and prosperous home for 
thousands of slaves, whose benevolent masters are now pre- 
paring them for the rational enjoyment of liberty ; but more 
especially at this juncture, to meet the pressing solicita- 
tions, and secure the liberty of a body of colonists of high 
character in Georgia, long anxious to emigrate to Africa, 
(See Appendix A,) we earnestly and affectionately solicit 
the patronage of our fellow-citizens, to enable us to com- 
ply ivith their wishes, — strengthen the colony noiv sent 
forth, — present a new barrier against the prosecution of 
the slave-trade, — and hasten the regeneration of that long 
oppressed continent. 

On behalf of the Committee. 

ELLIOTT CRESSON. 

10M mo. 31, 1834. 



GU 



APPENDIX A. 

Savannah, Sept. 21th, 1S34. 

Elliott Cresson, Esq. 

Dear Sir, — Your very polite and truly interesting letter, 
under date of the 5th instant, came safe to hand, together 
with a copy of the Young Men's Colonization Society of 
Pennsylvania. 1 assure you, Sir, the perusal of both ailbrded 
us a large share of gratification, and certainly demand from 
us a proportionate degree of thanks, which we cannot find 
words adequate to express. But we can only hope and pray 
that kind heaven may reward yourself and all of the friends 
of this truly charitable cause with an eternal crown of glory 
in heaven. You requested in yours, that in my reply, I 
should give some of my views respecting the Colony, and 
whether it would suit me to go with the October expedition. 
I regret that it will not be in my power to do so, as the 
notice is too short for myself and friends to do our unsettled 
business, sell our effects, &c; it would require at least two or 
three months notice, if possible, for us to be well prepared 
for our journey. My views respecting the principles and 
propriety of our emigrating to Africa, I shall briefly attempt 
to give. At an early part of my life, Sir, I commenced to 
consider upon, and endeavoured to find out, by reading the 
history of the world generally, in what part thereof the 
coloured man could enjoy true liberty, but in all of my re- 
searches I see but two places, Hayti and Liberia; and to the 
former my most prominent objections are, their religion, and 
their being inured to revolution and bloodshed, which I do 
not exactly tolerate, onlv when it cannot be avoided ; since 
thai time 1 sec accounts of the coloured settlements in Canada; 
this I do not altogi ther condemn in others, but will not suit 
me — their proximity to the whiles, who must retain a degree 
of prejudice toward them, particularly as their population in- 
creases; this we seen manifested in their objection to their 
first settling there. 1 have been told about Mexico, Texas, 
and of lands bordering on the Pacific ocean; but none of 
these places will suit me. Africa, the land of our progenitors, 
s to me to be our only hope. Soon after the Colony of 
Liiberia was established, although my circumstances would 
not admit my then going to it, 1 thought that it was the most 

interesting opening of Providence for the elevation of the 
coloured man, and for the civilization and christianizing of 



Gl 

Africa, that ever was thought of; and I do believe yet, that 
the coloured family will, in days to come, when oppositions 
and prejudices are gone by, exultingly acknowledge that the 
day the Colonization Society was formed, was certainly the 
most auspicious day which bears record in their history, and 
will bless the day and the names of those who first thought 
about Africa; and our sons and daughters will bless us for 
conducting them to that land of liberty and equality, and I 
hope of true piety also. Sir, much has been said here, as 
well as in other places, about the Colonization Society ; some 
pronounce it chimerical, and must soon sink into insignifi- 
cance ; some make objections saying it is unhealthy ; others 
that although we live in a slave state, yet we enjoy many 
advantages, and will have to part with many luxuries and 
comforts which we are accustomed to. All this may be true; 
but they weigh a. poor proportion in the scale of proper con- 
sideration. Another objection is brought forward, and 
which is believed also by many, that the Colonization So- 
ciety scheme consists of more policy than philanthropy ; con- 
sequently, they do not approbate its proceedings, &.c. But 
for my part, I have looked into their plans and proceedings 
with a very impartial eye, and although they, like every 
other society, may have some faulty members, yet, on the 
aggregate, are just in their views, and I do believe their work 
to be that of pure philanthropy and good will toward the, at 
present, degraded descendants of Africa ; and I do conscien- 
tiously believe that the founders and true friends of this In- 
stitution, ought to have their names enrolled with those of a 
Howard, a Wilberforce, and a Benezet, and have their re- 
membrance indelibly engraved orvthe hearts and affections of 
every lover of freedom on earth ; and I do candidly believe, 
that this little republic, founded through their goodness in 
Africa, will, in less than a century hence, hardly find its 
rival in the tropical part of the world. Our coloured brethren 
who have gone as pioneers before us, condescended to ad- 
dress us by a circular, and otherwise inviting us to their de- 
lightful country, and, as Christians, our sympathies certainly 
ought to be aroused at the call of the poor heathen, saying, 
"come over and teach us the rudiments of civilization and 
religion," and ought we to deafen our ears to this cry of mercy, 
or suffer these kind invitations to go by unembraced ? For 
my part, I do want to go, although not exactly as a mission- 
ary or teacher, yet as a helper in this vast field of moral use- 
fulness, and if my life is spared to get to that country, I will 



62 

be better able to determine wbat course to pursue. The 
abolitionists have many good men enlisted in their party, 
but many among them have suffered their zeal to take the 
place of their reason, and thereby have materially injured the 
coloured population, and have brought their Society into dis- 
repute. Thefree coloured people in this part of the country 
seem generally determined to remain where they are, prefer- 
ring the empty name of freedom, to that genuine freedom 
which they cannot obtain but in Liberia. I have received a 
number of letters from Liberia, from time to time, viz. for 
seven or eight years back, and most of them from some of 
their most intelligent and respectable men, most of which 
speaks highly of their prospects in that country, and recom- 
mend my going on. Most of these gentlemen recommend 
my going over in the rainy months, or near it as possible; 
saying, at that time, the air is purer than any other time; 
however, I do not myself regard what season I can get an 
opportunity. 

We have received a letter lately from our friend, T. S. 
Clay, in which he mentioned of receiving a letter from you 
on the subject of our uniting in your intended Colony. We ex- 
pect to hear from him again shortly on the subject. We will 
endeavour to make out a memorial to your Society soon, 
which we will forward by mail. Will you do us the special 
favour of sending us an answer as soon as possible. We re- 
joice to find so respectable a set of people as those of the late 
Dr. Hawes going to your settlement. I hope his example 
will be pursued by many others. 

1 have the honour, dear Sir, of subscribing myself, 
Your obedient servant, 

SAMUEL BENEDICT. 



63 



APPENDIX B. 

Monte Video, Oct. 10th, 1834. 

Isaac Walker was left to inc by Capt. John A. Thornton, 
by his will of IS 17. Isaac has been to me, as he has been 
to Capt. Thornton, a valuable and a faithful servant; and 
upon one occasion, saved me (as I shall ever believe) from 
injury or death, when attacked by a ruffian white man. I 
have, in consideration of his faithfulness, given him my full 
permission to go to BassaCove, in Liberia, where I trust God 
Almighty, in his great mercy, may bless and protect him. 

Isaac is going in company with the servants of the late 
Dr. Aylett Hawes, (amongst whom he has a wife,) which 
servants were taken under the patronage of the Young 
Men's Colonization Society of Pennsylvania, and under the 
care of which Society, Isaac wishes to place himself. 

It is with great pleasure that I give him this letter, bear- 
ing testimony to his worth, and earnestly recommending 
him to their kind attention. 

Isaac is a consistent member of Christ's Church, of the 
Baptist denomination; but has ever manifested a liberal and 
Christian spirit towards his Christian brethren of other per- 
suasions. 

It would be needless to say that he is an honest man, — of 
this, his Christian character will testify; he is an excellent 
and faithful workman, — a polite accommodating man. It is 
not of necessity that he goes to Liberia; his character is so 
well established in this part of Virginia that he has been 
for some years doing business for himself. I lament very 
much that it is not in my power to add to his purse, and I 
am sorry that my necessities have been such that I could 
not permit him to lay up for this removal, his whole gains 
for years past, but hope that the agent of the Society will 
meet any deficiencies in his funds; and I do hereby au- 
thorize Isaac to draw on me for fifteen dollars. I know the 
value of such men as Isaac to the colony, and I have no 
doubt that every encouragement will be given to him. This 
letter, though designed to be seen by the said agent, I give 
to him in this little book, to be kept by him as a memorial 
of me, this 10th day of October, 1S34, in testimony where- 
of, I have set my name, 

FRANCIS THORNTON, Jr. 

Pastor of the Rappahannock Church, under the care of 
The Presbytery of Winchester, Synod of Virginia. 



LIST OF 



SUBSCRIPTIONS AND DONATIONS. 



Legacy of Dr. Aylet( Hawes, #2200 oo 

A Frii ml, - . 1000 00 

Elliott C reason, - . . 1000 oo 

iii ulah Sansom, - - 200 00 

Gerard Ralston, - 100 00 

Joseph Warner, - . 100 00 

John Connell, - 100 00 

Sarah K. Cresson, - - 100 00 

Paul Beck, jun. - - . 100 00 

All aander Henry, - - 50 00 

Sa 1 iiu bards, - . so 00 

Joseph Dugan, - - - 50 00 

Hi" s imuel lSreck, - - 50 00 

Miss Butler, - - . 50 00 

Thomas Butler, - - - 50 00 

Lewis R. Ashhurst, - - 50 00 

Richard 1). Wood, - - 50 00 

\ . Dickson, - - 50 00 

IS' n.i. ^. Janni >, M.D. - - 50 00 

Edward Tatnall, • - 50 00 

John s. 11, ,ii' , - . - 50 00 

Donation of a Citizen, - - 50 00 

\. 1 .. Ralston, - - - 50 00 

Josiah White, - - . 50 00 

Matthew Newkirk, - - 5000 

Washington Jackson, - - 50 00 

Abraham Miller, - - - 50 00 

.I'.-i j.li R. In-. iM, II, . . 50 00 

Samuel Jaudon, 50 00 

Franklin Lee, - - - 50 00 

Aim Humphreys, - - 40 oo 

James Rice, - - - 33 00 

T. BIKcott Jk Son, - - 35 00 

Pi b r Li lley, - - - 30 00 

Mary Cresson, - - - 30 00 

Rebecca Eaton, - - - 30 00 

Z. P. Grant, per E. Caldwell, - 30 00 

Levi li" I. - - - 30 00 

William U . K. 1 n, - - 30 00 

.1. . I, n Elliott, (Druggist,) - - 30 00 

W. 1 .. ' .11 n It, - - - 30 00 

1 homas M attson, - - 30 00 

Samuel Jackson, M.D. - - 30 00 

Benjamin H. Warder, - - 30 00 

William Craig, - - - 30 00 

Right Rev. Bishop White, - 30 00 

John 11. Warder, - - 25 00 

well, - - 20 00 

D iv ill Weaiherly, - - 20 00 

M. W. Baldwin, - - - 20 00 

Field, Fobes & Co. - 20 00 

Ellis Yarnall, - - - 20 00 

J. W. Gibbs, annual,) 10 00 

\ bbott, do. - - 10 00 

.all, - - 10 00 

\i,n 1 I nist, - - - 10 00 



w. M. Magoffin, 

Nathaniel Chauncey, 

.Linn 1 Starr, ... 

Joseph s. Riley, - 

1 /1. 1 Stilt 5 Ely, D.D. - 

'1 wo Ladies, per I,. R. Ashhurst, 

A Lady, |» r s. Caldwell, 

C. s. Wurts, 

J. Js; w. Nassau, 

Dr. S. Murphy, - 

Miss Freeman, - 

S. K. Cresson, jun. 

Robert Bald, - 

John Lambert, ... 

1 ■'. v. Krug, ... 

Ri . v< •-, Buck & Co. 

.1. R. Davis, 

C. P. Bayard, 

William Musgrave, 

John Richardson, 

C. Tingley, 

I redei ic Fraley, 

C. Collins, 

Michael Baker, - - - 

Mrs. Dinar, - 
Edward H. Riddle, 
William Stevenson, 
William M. M'Main, (annual,) - 
Jolin Binns, do. 

\\ llli.im B. Cooper, do. 
Sylvanus i-' hman, do. 
Rei . .1. M. Dickey, do. 
Casper Morris, M.D. do. 
William Rowland, do. 

Edward W. Howell, do. 
And a large number of small Sub- 
scriptions and Donations. 

John Dickson, Grocerii 9, 
John Klliott, Drugs, - 
Budd West, do. 

John Hani, il, 'I inuare, 
< .. M. I Ikinton, Soap, - 
11. Shriver, pun isions, 
('■.llins & Sberer, Paper, 
Uriah Hunt, do. 

\\ eigand fs Snowden, Surgical In- 
struments, 
John Roher & Suns, do. 
s. C. Sheppard, do. - 

11. Schiveley, do. 

C. Collins, Clothing;, - 
Russell ;<c Martien, Printing, 
John id ni. Merchandise, 

.1. C. Hand, do. 

w. M. Muzzey, (;iass. - 
Matthew Carey, Pamphlets, - 



COLLECTIONS IN CHURCHES, &c. 



lit Presb] '1 1 inn Church, 



2d 

6th 

7lb 

1 1, 



do 
do. 
do. 
do. 
do. 



I)i. W\ lie's, 
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#■10 02 
77 13 
45 03 
24 00 
II 05 
58 46 
30 28 



> 1 pin) 28 40 
Methodist Ch. pi r Ri v . Ch. Pitman, 

do. do. per Rev. J. Lybrand, p 1 i 
do, do. i" r do. 5 75 

■ i.'inii, W. Cheater, p< i 
s. Halkrwell, - - 6 oo 



Oxford Ch. p< r Ri \ . J. M. Dickey, 
( .. i -iiiauiutt n iii. per Dr. Neill, 
St. John's Ch. pi r Rev. <;. Boyd, 
Presb} ii i ' in i IiuitIi, Wilkesbarre, 

]n t Rev. J, Dorrance, 
Cumberland Co. Colonization Soc. 
Musical 1- null Hall, 
Northern Exchange, 
Juvi idle Coll. bj Charlotte Sproal, 
do. do. b) Eliza Cone, 
do. Sm u tj of I'olk's School, 



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